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Market Insight

Africa’s consulting market is being redrawn. Be on the right side of it.

Donor money is shrinking and moving. The talent pool is growing faster than anywhere. Borders are opening to professional services. Here is what the research says, and what it means for the work you do or the people you hire.

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A team of consultants meeting around a table in a Lagos office

What is shifting

Four changes, and what each one means for you.

The continent’s economies are still growing, at around 4% a year according to the African Development Bank. But the way expertise is funded, found and trusted is changing underneath that growth.

Each change starts with a published figure and explains it in plain words. Then it shows what it means for consultants and for the organisations that hire them.

A road and the lagoon in Lagos, Nigeria, seen from above

Change 1 of 4

23%

Fall in international aid in 2025

The money is shrinking, and shifting

Preliminary data shows official development assistance from the major donors fell by about 23% in 2025, the biggest drop on record. Bilateral aid to sub-Saharan Africa fell by roughly a quarter.

In plain terms: Fewer international contracts, each with more bidders. Buyers look harder for value, and for people they can trust to deliver.

If you are a consultant

Fewer large international contracts, and more people chasing each one. Verified, visible experience is what gets you on the shortlist.

If you commission work

Budgets stretch further when you can find proven local expertise quickly.

Farmers standing together in a cassava field in Nigeria

Change 2 of 4

25%

Pledged for local organisations

Funders want local expertise, and have for years

In 2016, humanitarian donors pledged at least a quarter of their funding to local and national responders. Only a few percent has reached them directly. The pressure to close that gap continues.

In plain terms: The commitment is a decade old and delivery is still catching up. Funders are looking for local partners whose track record they can check.

If you are a consultant

Donors and international NGOs need local partners they can vouch for. A verified track record is that proof.

If you commission work

You can meet local-partnership commitments with people whose work has been checked.

A young man working on a laptop at a university in Kumasi, Ghana

Change 3 of 4

1 in 3

Young people worldwide, by 2050

More talent than any other region

By 2050, one in every three young people in the world will be African, and the continent’s working-age population will grow from 883 million to 1.6 billion.

In plain terms: The number of qualified people who can do the work rises every year, in every country and every sector.

If you are a consultant

More qualified people will compete for the same work. Standing out will depend on proof of the work you have done.

If you commission work

The talent is there. The hard part is finding and trusting the right person, which is what verification and matching are for.

  • Ratified50
  • Signed, not yet ratified4
  • Not signed1

Hover or tap a country to see its status.

Signed, not yet ratified
Benin, Libya, South Sudan, Sudan
Not signed
Eritrea

Change 4 of 4

5

Priority services sectors, business services among them

One market for services, on paper

The African Continental Free Trade Area’s services protocol names business services as one of five priority sectors to open up across borders.

In plain terms: The agreement gives professional services a route across borders. The map shows how many countries have joined it so far.

If you are a consultant

Your next client may be in another country. Being findable across borders becomes part of the job.

If you commission work

A wider pool of experts, and teams that combine expertise from several countries.

What Market Insight gives you

The research tells you where the market is going. Ours tells you where you stand in it.

Published research stops at the regional level. Market Insight goes down to your sector and your country, and it is built from work that has been verified.

  • Rate ranges from confirmed work

    See what comparable work has actually paid in your sector and region.

  • Where demand is moving

    Which sectors and regions are asking for help, and which skills organisations are finding hard to source.

  • Gaps that are opportunities

    Where verified expertise is thin is where the next opportunity is. See it before everyone else does.

Three colleagues in Lagos reading figures together on a laptop

How it is built

Every figure starts with work an organisation has confirmed.

  1. 01

    Organisations confirm delivery

    When work is delivered, the organisation confirms it on the platform. Confirmed engagements are the ones that count.

  2. 02

    We group what was confirmed

    Each engagement is grouped by sector, country and skill, so every figure describes comparable work.

  3. 03

    You see it when it is safe to show

    A figure appears once enough engagements sit behind it. Until then you see a range, and every person stays anonymous.

Small numbers stay private

If only a few engagements sit behind a figure, we show a range and keep every person anonymous.

It grows as we grow

Market Insight fills as verified engagements are confirmed on the platform. Join early and your confirmed work helps set the benchmark for everyone in your field.

The people who act on these shifts first will do the best out of them.

Get verified once, and be the person organisations find when the work arrives. Or post a call and see verified experts matched to it.

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