Report: Despite Africa’s 4.7m Strong Developer Base, Gender Gap Still Limits Continent’s Full Digital Potential

Emma Okonji

Boston Consulting Group (BCG), which empowers global organisations to grow and build sustainable competitive advantage, has released its latest report, revealing how Africa’s software and applications developer community is scaling fast at 21 per cent annually.

The report however said although Africa currently has 4.7 million developers, and competing with regions such as Europe with 27.5 million and Asia with 73.9 million developers, the continent still struggle with low representation of women in its software developer communities.

The report highlighted that women remained vastly underrepresented in Africa’s fast‑growing developer population, a strategic gap, the report said, if closed, could significantly accelerate the continent’s digital capacity.

The report showed that while South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria have the largest absolute numbers of developers, countries like Tunisia, Kenya and Morocco have distinguished themselves in both scale and momentum.

According to the report, Tunisia stands out as a continental leader, reaching 24 per cent women developers by 2024, the highest on the continent, driven by a decade of focused growth and inclusion efforts, adding that by contrast, major tech hubs such as Morocco and Egypt count fewer than 14 per cent women developers, despite their large and rapidly expanding tech ecosystems.

“This disparity demonstrates that population size alone does not define digital strength or gender inclusion. Instead, countries that have invested in education systems, digital policies, research networks and supportive tech ecosystems are emerging as leaders. Tunisia’s progress provides strong evidence that gender inclusion responds to intentional policy choices, and that scaling women’s participation represents an untapped growth lever for many African markets,” the report said.

The report however noted that the rapid acceleration of Africa’s software developers’ communities signaled a major economic opportunity for African countries to strengthen their competitiveness and build industries powered by homegrown digital skills. It therefore called for increased participation of women in software development, where several markets remain significantly underserved despite proven potential.

“Africa’s growth is remarkable not only for its speed but for the structural shifts underpinning it. The continent’s youthful population, expanding digital access, rising urban tech hubs and targeted national policy choices are converging to create a deep and dynamic talent pool.

“At the same time, nations like Ethiopia and Angola are recording some of the fastest increases in developer activity from modest starting points, underscoring how intentional ecosystem design can change national trajectories,” the report added.

Giving additional insights, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG, Casablanca, and Head of BCG’s Tech Hub in Africa, Hamid Maher, explained that the shift was both intentional and transformative.

Maher said: “What we are witnessing across the African continent is the result of deliberate investment – policies that prioritise skills, education systems aligned to future industries, and ecosystems designed to unlock talent at scale. Countries that take this seriously are accelerating far faster than demographics alone would ever predict.”

He also said: “Building Africa’s developer base is one of the highest‑return investments countries can make. It strengthens resilience, drives economic diversification and unlocks the growth engines of the future.”

According to the report, “As these communities grow, they are also strengthening the foundations needed for sustainable innovation and long‑term economic expansion.”

The report discovered a clear connection between countries with large developer populations and those producing greater volumes of scientific research. In 2020, Morocco and Egypt recorded the highest number of scientific publications in Africa, mirroring their strong developer concentrations. Expanding women’s participation in software development stands to amplify this effect, unlocking new talent, strengthening research ecosystems and accelerating Africa’s readiness to shape the next wave of global digital and AI technologies.

“Across the continent, developer communities are rewriting Africa’s technology narrative. Their growth is expanding economic participation, enabling knowledge creation, strengthening local industries and contributing to new sources of productivity and global engagement.

 “Developing the continent’s developers is not simply a digital agenda, critically, it’s an economic one. When countries nurture strong developer communities, they create the conditions for new businesses to emerge, for scientific output to grow, and for innovation to flourish. This is how long‑term national competitiveness is built,” the report added.