African countries must not restrict or hinder digital nomads and skilled workers from crossing their borders. This counter-intuitive mindset prevents scalable growth, especially when these digital nomads offer the skills and talent required to help grow Africa’s digital economy.

Sadly, South Africa does this repeatedly, and it harms our continued economic transformation.

The department of home affairs has reported that, between 2015 and 2021, a yearly low average of 2 200 skilled workers entered South Africa, implying a rejection rate of 52%; for business visas, this figure is as high as 68%.

In the same breath, the very body enforcing this restrictive regime has taken up the charge to implement digital nomad visas, which it only launched formally in February 2024. So, what more can be done in the face of this kind of governmental impediment?

In the interim, businesses seeking to secure such niche skill sets can outsource them through local agencies that offer specialised digital training to their employees.

This human-based import substitution is best demonstrated in an industry as dynamic as that of software development.

Digital needs

Not all companies — and especially not those small and medium-sized businesses that are set to continue to grow — can realistically maintain the force of talented in-house developers they will require to operate and adapt to the business’s digital needs; this is particularly crucial given that a companies’ digital needs can evolve at the same breakneck pace as the wider digital landscape itself.

Read: Digital nomad visas are on the rise in Africa – but South Africa is far behind

Companies should actively seek out partners that offer continual training, education and upskilling to their in-house teams — these would be the agencies that recognise the skills gap created by our visa regime, yet have taken a proactive South African approach to plug it.

Regards,
Daniel Novitzkas, co-founder and chairman at Specno

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