As a result of the rapid growth in tech echo systems in Africa and the need for software engineering talents, Microsoft is investing over US$100 million to open its first development centres on the continent. The centres will employ 100 African developers full-time this year, and will expand to 500 developers by 2023.

GitHub's latest annual report showed that African developers created 40% more open source repositories this year than last -a higher percentage growth than any other continent.? Larger developer communities, like those in Morocco, Kenya, and Nigeria, saw up to 70% more contributors this year than last year.? These young developers who cannot all be accommodated locally, work remotely for foreign companies and platforms, or move to Europe.