Uganda shines in Global Talent Index

The latest 2026 Global Outsourcing Talent Index has ranked Uganda as the 24th best country in outsourcing destinations in the world.

The Index, which examined 193 countries, also put the East African nation in the second position in the region, and the seventh in Africa.

The Global Outsourcing Talent Index ranks countries by their competitiveness as destinations for outsourced digital services.

“Uganda is no longer an emerging outsourcing market. It is increasingly a trusted destination for global digital services, offering talent, affordability, reliability, and innovation,” reads part of the index report.

Officials from the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance attributed this global achievement to the timely enactment of relevant laws like the National Business Process Outsourcing Policy and partnerships.

The Ministry Permanent Secretary, Dr Aminah Zawedde, said that the BPO policy, whose goal was to make Uganda the destination of choice for global digital services, has started to yield positive results.

“This ranking is not accidental. It is the outcome of deliberate policy, investment in ICT training aligned to international standards, infrastructure development, and creating the conditions for Ugandan enterprises to compete globally. NDP IV gave us the framework. Our young people are delivering the results,” she said.

The Cabinet in 2024 approved the BPO Policy, which encompassed a multifaceted strategy to cultivate a flourishing BPO ecosystem and streamline business processes

BPO policy is also aimed at ensuring cost-effectiveness, expanding market access, nurturing skilled talent, and developing cutting-edge infrastructure, and in turn creating more than 100,000 jobs.

Dr Zawedde said that two international partnerships, including the Uganda–Japan ICT Connectivity Project and United Kingdom Trade Partnerships Programme, have also been key.

The UJ-Connect is a collaboration between the Ministry of ICT and Japan’s International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which aims to create 6000 jobs.

The collaboration has, since its inception, according to Dr Zawedde, facilitated 51 business-matching engagements between Ugandan and Japanese technology companies — concrete commercial relationships, not aspirational memoranda, and established BizLink, a platform connecting Ugandan software engineers and BPO firms with outsourcing opportunities from Japanese clients.

Separately, the United Kingdom Trade Partnerships Programme has worked with Uganda’s export-ready IT and BPO companies to strengthen their compliance with international standards, sharpen their market positioning, and open doors in the United Kingdom.

Part of this work, she noted, gave birth to ‘The Tech Pearl’ — Uganda’s rebranded BPO value proposition, positioning the country as a destination for reliable delivery, specialised talent, and genuine partnership.

“Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan — NDP IV — identifies digital transformation and human capital development as twin engines of the country’s transition toward upper-middle-income status by 2040,” she said.

She added, “The BPO sector sits precisely at that intersection: it creates skilled employment, earns foreign exchange, and accelerates the digital skilling of a workforce that is, on average, younger than in almost any country on earth.”

Over 73 percent of Uganda’s population is under 30. In most development contexts, that statistic is cited as a pressure — a demographic that needs feeding, schooling, and eventually employing.

Dr Zawedde said that the Global Outsourcing Talent Index has reframed it as an asset to Uganda’s youth who are not a burden to be managed but a labour force that global businesses want to hire.

According to her, the Global Outsourcing Talent Index not only affirm Uganda’s progress because it identifies the gaps, and continued investment in broadband infrastructure, digital skilling at scale, and private sector development will determine whether Uganda climbs from 24th to a position of genuine regional dominance in the sector.

Maarifasasa Limited, a Ugandan company, now employs 1500 youths, who offer services to various clients in Japan, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Ghana, and Eswatini.

Beyond Maarifasasa Limited, a growing cohort of Ugandan firms is delivering services to clients across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

They provide customer support, cybersecurity, software development, data management, digital marketing, quality assurance, and market research. Some are large and established. Others are lean and fast-growing. All of them are proof of a thesis: that Uganda can compete.

The ICT Ministry has signalled its intent to deepen these investments. The BPO Policy framework, aligned to NDP IV, provides the scaffolding. What fills it will depend on whether public investment, private ambition, and individual determination continue to compound.