Growth in Africa is not a myth. It increases (3.2% in 2018 and 3.5% in 2019 according to Africa’s pulse) and boosts the development of new sectors. Consequence: the continent is looking for new expertise, both technical and managerial.
The web is one of the sectors with strong recruitment potential in Africa. In a publication, Forbes Afrique declares that “hirings in the african web sector increases to reflect the access rate of the continent to the Internet: in a heterogeneous way, with a pre-eminence of the mobile phone”
As a result, the need for digital skills increases, due to a better smartphone penetration rate in Africa, which should reach up to 70% by 2018. But according to the magazine, “The skill gap between supply and demand persists”.
With the advent of the digital age, many companies and organizations still “do not yet have a website or a real digital strategy”. In the current African business field, the digital is a key resource provide a significant boost to enterprises. As a result, jobs related to the web create profits for companies.
As a result, the demand increases for profiles such as Content managers, web designers, independent consultants, web-writers and web-marketers etc., the magazine states.
These “web skills” are needed to contribute to the “branding” of companies through digital marketing, programming or SEO. And in this field, with the impact of social networks, profiles as digital strategies manager, directors or experts in digital communication, but also engineers or computer experts are sought-after.
However, Africa needs competences related to the web while there is a lack of web developers, the magazine said.
Recruiting a web developer can take months, despite privileged working conditions and good wages: “no company can evolve or innovate without a web developer (…) and it is the lack of good web developers that plunges the activity of young entrepreneurs managing start-ups and innovative companies operating in the digital”.
“There is a real issue in training developers in Senegal. It is a very demanding profession, which involves several phases, ranging from architecture to development. We do not have good schools for this, “says Mr Diagne, CTO of Talent2Africa, a digital recruitment company based in Dakar and Paris.
In addition to the needs of web developers, Content and community managers, web course instructors are needed to “provide more web-related expertise in universities and schools”.