Uganda secures spot among top 25 global outsourcing hubs

Uganda secures spot among top 25 global outsourcing hubs

KAMPALA, Uganda — It is 10 o’clock on a Tuesday morning in Gulu, in Northern Uganda, and Amara is already four hours into her workday. Her client is in Tokyo. The project is a website rebuild for a mid-sized Japanese retail firm. She has never visited Japan, and she has never needed to.

Amara, 26, is one of 1,500 trained digital freelancers working through Maarifasasa Limited, a Ugandan company that has built a talent network serving clients across Japan, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, South Korea, Ghana, and Eswatini. The operation is run largely by young Ugandans who were told, for years, that opportunity required a passport.

“People used to say that if you wanted to work in tech, you had to go to Nairobi, or leave Africa entirely,” she says. “Nobody told us the work could come to us.”

It is coming to them, and the world has taken notice. Uganda has officially secured a spot among the top 25 global outsourcing hubs, ranking 24th out of 193 countries in the 2026 Global Outsourcing Talent Index.

The index, which measures competitiveness for outsourced digital services, places Uganda in the global top 13%. Uganda now stands as the second-ranked country in the East African Community, behind Kenya, and is one of only seven African nations to make the global top 25. In labor cost competitiveness alone, Uganda ranked 12th globally, ahead of much larger economies with longer-established tech sectors.

According to the authors of the index, Uganda is no longer just an emerging outsourcing market, but increasingly a trusted destination for global digital services that offers talent, affordability, reliability, and innovation.

Policy meets performance

This global recognition arrives as the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance sees its National Business Process Outsourcing Policy deliver tangible economic returns. The sector sits at the heart of Uganda’s Fourth National Development Plan, which targets digital transformation and human capital development to propel the country toward upper-middle-income status by 2040.

While the metrics reflect the commercial choices of international corporations, they also validate a national bet on Uganda’s young, English-speaking, and digitally literate population. Over 73% of Uganda’s population is under 30. Through the lens of the new rankings, this demographic is no longer framed as a pressure on public resources, but as a highly competitive global asset.

“This ranking is not accidental,” says Dr. Aminah Zawedde, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of ICT and National Guidance. “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.”

Strategic international partnerships

Uganda’s ascent into the top tier of global hubs has been accelerated by key international collaborations.

The Uganda–Japan ICT Connectivity Project, known as UJ-Connect, is a partnership between the ICT Ministry and Japan’s International Cooperation Agency. The initiative has facilitated 51 business-matching engagements between Ugandan and Japanese tech firms, creating direct commercial pathways. It also established BizLink, a platform connecting local software engineers and BPO firms directly with Japanese clients.

Concurrently, the United Kingdom Trade Partnerships Programme has assisted export-ready Ugandan IT firms in meeting international compliance standards and sharpening their market positioning. This collaboration supported the creation of “The Tech Pearl,” Uganda’s rebranded BPO value proposition designed to market the country as a hub for reliable delivery and specialized talent.

A growing ecosystem

Beyond Maarifasasa Limited, an expanding cohort of local firms is executing customer support, cybersecurity, software development, data management, digital marketing, and market research for international clients.

For Brian, 29, who leads a quality assurance team at a Kampala-based BPO firm serving clients in three European countries, the new global ranking represents a shift in local tech opportunities. After missing out on a Kenyan BPO role two years ago, he found his breakthrough at home.

“I used to think the real jobs were somewhere else,” he says. “They were here the whole time. We just needed more people to build them. I thank the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of ICT and National Guidance and the team at the Ministry, I now earn a decent living.”

While the index confirms significant progress, it also highlights areas for sustained growth. Future advancement will depend on continued public and private investments in broadband infrastructure, large-scale digital skilling, and private sector development.

Back in Gulu, Amara prepares to brief her Tokyo client on their next project milestone. Working via video conference in English over a stable internet connection, her delivery is competitive with any vendor worldwide. She represents Uganda’s new status at number 24, and the industry is just getting started.