In Europe it keeps getting harder to find good IT-personnel. Startup Tunga sees the solution in Africa and couples local programmers to international projects. The result: a good salary — and therefore perspective — for young African people and a solution for the Western staff shortage. Tunga founder Ernesto Spruyt talks to the leading Dutch radio station BNR on why he focuses on this continent.
The entire interview (in Dutch) can be listened to online, but for our non-Dutch speaking followers here are some highlights.
Outsourcing can be done in many ways. In East-Europe, India, Romania and Bulgaria IT-specialist are being put to work. Why did Ernesto choose to look for qualified personnel in Africa? ‘I used to work at a development aid organisation and later on at a tech-company. Here I discovered the shortage on the IT-market and I saw it as a solution to improve the position of young people in Africa.’
We serve companies world-wide, from start-ups to big corporations
Meanwhile, Tunga serves customers all over the world and especially in the Netherlands. ‘Small companies and start-ups, but also corporations: actually everyone who wants an app or platform to be built’, says Ernesto.
And why do companies choose for Tunga? ‘Because they just want a good product via a good process. And for some companies our social proposition is the decisive factor. We have an extraordinary story and the way we work contributes to our high level of service. We treat our personnel well and due to that they are extra motivated.
Ernesto has been to the BNR studio before to talk about Europe’s and Africa’s wish to let the African economy grow, so more people can have a future on their own continent. And would therefore no longer move to Europe in massive numbers. What does Ernesto think of the perspective of the young African people now?
Africa is being discovered as a continent that is unexplored in the tech-field
‘Africa is enormous; I don’t know the situation of all of the countries. We, ourselves, are situated in Uganda and Nigeria and we’re expanding to Egypt. About Uganda I can say that the youth unemployment is 83%, so there’s little perspective. And if Africa is not doing well, it will affect Europe as well.’ Ernesto emphasises that the economic perspective is not the reason behind the start of Tunga. ‘The perspective is not shiny, however in the tech-field a lot is changing. Africa is being discovered as a continent that is unexplored in the tech-field. And that is the reason why I chose this place.’
And what effect does Tunga have on the African market? ‘The effect is not that big yet, we’re still a young, but fast growing, company. We do see the role model effect. So we want to show the young people that this is an attractive career path, with which you can improve your financial position and career opportunities, maybe even internationally. We also train a lot of people. For this we work together with WeAreBits, a network of IT-schools who provide free IT-education to youngsters. Where necessary we add on to that, to prepare them for the real work.’
Thus Tunga on one hand makes sure there’s a migration in the African labour market, by reassuring that people can get better chances (and take them) and at the same time Tunga invests in new recruitment.
And it’s working, partly due to the set-up and the good salary, young people are waiting in line to start working for Tunga. ‘People who work for us earn more than what is considered reasonable for people living in Africa, but less than the Dutch standards. Africans get 4 to 20 times more than that they would normally get. And that makes that lots of people want to work for us, that definitely isn’t a concern for us.’
Our programmers spend their money on their own economy
What is another positive effect of your company? ‘That would have to be the trickle-down effect. What you notice is that the programmers spend their money in their local economy. One bought from his first money a bigger and more expensive scooter, that’s fine of course! We don’t say anything about that. But another bought online courses for his whole family to achieve new tech skills. That is amazing to see. We stimulate this in an informal way.’
Ernesto says that there surely is competition for resources. One of them is Silicon Valley. The technological companies in California have more money to offer than Tunga and are employing African programmers. However, Ernesto knows, from his own experience, that the gigantic cultural differences require a lot of management, because it takes a lot of work to let the Africans work in their own continent or within a company. ‘It’s not easy to manage someone who is several thousands of kilometres away. It took us one and a half year until we achieved how to do it.’
Tunga teaches developers to place themselves in the customer’s shoes
He continues: ‘You have to be able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes. That is difficult when you’ve never left your own country and you work, for example, for a company in the Netherlands. Because how does this customer think? But due to our set-up, our developers pick this up very quickly.’
In this moment, Tunga is expanding. What is being accounted for when moving forward? ‘Amongst other things, we keep an eye on political stability. That is also the reason why we’ll be in three countries. That way we spread the risks. Uganda, Nigeria and Egypt together have 300 million inhabitants, so we still have a lot of work to do there. And we look at the demand. We can still continue in the Netherlands. But we’re also considering other countries.’