Earlier today, The New York Times published a story detailing the explosive growth of offshore hiring in India. The piece charts how American companies, from startups like Pure Storage to legacy giants like JPMorgan and Pitney Bowes, are shifting tens of thousands of jobs to India—where nearly 2 million Indians already work in global offshore centers, and hundreds of new facilities open every year. From medical data to marketing strategy, microchip design to customer operations, Indian professionals are now doing what American workers used to do—for a fraction of the cost.
This is not new. Companies began outsourcing to India in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Pari Natarajan, an executive quoted in the article, helped firms start this process in 2002. And now, with the normalization of remote work, the floodgates are wide open.
But any African reading this should be triggered by the massive opportunity, angered by the fact that we haven’t yet captured it.
Africa can and must position ourselves at the forefront of the next wave of global workforce innovation.
The Numbers Don’t Lie
The NYT article lays out some striking statistics:
- Over 1.9 million Indians already work in offshore offices for foreign companies
- These centers earned $65 billion in 2024, with projections exceeding $100 billion by 2030
- India produces 10 times more engineering graduates annually than the United States
- There are already 1,800 offshore corporate offices in India, with 50 new ones established just last year and 100 more expected in 2025
And here’s where Africa becomes the X-factor.
Many African nations still offer tremendous human capital at far lower prices than India. If Indian salaries are a third of U.S. equivalents, African salaries could be a seventh or eighth—and still feel generous on the ground. Even with additional training investments, the return on investment remains dramatically higher with African talent. Not just cash-wise, but in innovation as well.
The “Skilled Worker” Myth
“Skilled workers” is often just a euphemism for people who are trained, reliable, and affordable. And with the absolute failure of the America’s education czars to produce a supremely effective workforce, it’s no surprise that companies are hiring elsewhere.
Sure, there’s talent in the U.S., but if a company can get the same skill level for one-third—or in Africa’s case, one-sixth or even one-eighth—the price, the economics are simple.
We’ve written about this before at noirpress. Nigerian talent, for example, is not only abundant but also fiercely intelligent, creative, and driven. Yes, there’s a training gap, but even accounting for world-class training programs, the cost savings are undeniable. And if you look across the continent—Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Zambia—the opportunities for workforce development and high-yield returns multiply.
Africa’s Untapped Advantage
We’re not starting from scratch. Africa already has:
- A massive youth population—the youngest continent on Earth, with over 60% of sub-Saharan Africans under 25
- Growing digital connectivity and tech adoption rates that outpace global averages
- Emerging tech hubs from Lagos to Nairobi, Cape Town to Cairo
- Multilingual talent with natural advantages in global communication
The shift is already happening in pockets. Many of us have noticed the East and Southern African accents when speaking with Amazon customer service representatives. We’ve seen Nigerian developers, Kenyan strategists, and South African designers making waves in multinational companies.
But it’s not enough to see it happening sporadically. We need continental scale, continental coordination. We need infrastructure that doesn’t just support excellence, but expects it.
Beyond Being Hired: Leading the Future
Our strategy must go deeper than simply making ourselves available to American multinationals. The goal is not merely employment—it’s empowerment, leadership, and ultimately, sovereignty.
That means:
- Building training institutions that are ours, rooted in African excellence
- Forming regional alliances between African founders to support cross-border hiring pipelines
- Creating and backing our own global companies—from tech to media to engineering
- Developing ecosystems that cultivate not just technical talent but also African leadership
Because the ultimate goal is not just to get the job. It’s to run the company. Not just to join Zoom calls, but to design the platforms everyone else uses. Not just to write the marketing copy, but to own the strategy—and the product.
The Power Is in Our Hands
We have entered a new era of distributed power. Opportunity is no longer defined by borders but by bandwidth. And if India’s $65 billion in offshore revenue last year is any indication, then Africa’s billion-strong population is sitting on a vibranium mine.
Governments that are serious about seizing this opportunity will do what Nigeria’s leadership failed to do when it announced a “startup house” in Silicon Valley while neglecting the mass underemployment of Nigerian youth.
African nations must shift education priorities to emphasize high-value, revenue-generating skills. Skills that are not only globally marketable but align with the continent’s potential for innovation.
Let’s not sit with our hands out, waiting for others to change our story. Let’s write the future on our own terms.
In the next piece, we’ll explore the cultural foundations that make workforce excellence possible, and then the practical steps African leaders can take now to train a generation of world-class professionals who will build global companies from the ground up.
Pictured: The 2019 Class of Harambeans, innovators scaling ventures to unlock the full potential of our people.
