The Talent IS in Africa. The Way Companies Look For It Is Broken.

How to find the talent your hiring process is filtering out

There is a belief, rarely stated out loud and almost never challenged, that local candidates are a risk.

That the person embedded in the culture your business depends on is somehow less reliable than someone brought in from the Middle East or Europe.

And then there is the network. When someone arrives to build a business in a new city, their relationships travel with them. When a role opens, the first call goes to someone they’ve worked with before, who refers someone from the same circle.

While the process feels “responsible”, the community that provided the land, the culture, and the customer base is left out of the decisions being made about it.

These two things — bias and network — are why the talent conversation in Africa keeps starting in the wrong place.

“We can’t find the right people.” “There’s a skills gap.” “We need to bring in experience.”

What’s often left unsaid is how much African talent is overlooked, underdeveloped, or never seriously considered in the first place.

So the question isn’t just where is the talent?

It’s: how are you looking for it and what are you missing?

I've seen this pattern repeat across industries — hospitality, tech, finance, real estate — and heard it echoed by leaders across the continent.

The strongest people are often already in the ecosystem. They’re just not visible through traditional hiring filters.

They’re the ones informally leading teams. Solving problems before they escalate. Holding operations together without the title.

In many cases, they’re already doing the job—just without the title, pay, or recognition.

They’re also in the communities around you, just not in a way the industry formally recognizes.

If you only look through CVs, credentials, and familiar pipelines, you will miss them.

So what does it look like to approach talent differently?

It starts before the role.

Spending time in the environments that a company wants to operate in. Building relationships with community organizations, schools and training programs, and a trusted local network that can pinpoint who is capable.

Because talent doesn’t always introduce itself through a job application.

You have to know where to look.

Then it shifts in how you evaluate people.

Not just: “What experience do you have?”

But:

• What have you managed without resources?

• What problems have you solved?

• What did you build when no one was watching?

In many cases, that tells you more than a polished CV ever will.

And once you find the right people, development has to be intentional.

Not a one-time training. Not a checklist.

Intentional development looks like:

Giving people access to rooms they haven’t been in before. Letting them observe how decisions are made. Creating space for questions without penalty.

It looks like ongoing, consistent and specific feedback. Continued education and training.

It looks like trusting people with more responsibility and walking beside them as they navigate new spaces.

And it means recognizing that confidence is often a skill that is built through practice.

When someone hasn’t been given the chance to step into their potential, development becomes about exposure, trust, and reinforcement.

Talent becomes visible when organizations decide to look differently.

Because the gap isn’t always capability. It’s recognition and access. And often, it’s whether anyone took the time to look closely enough.

The talent is here. The question is whether you’re willing to recognize it when it doesn’t look like what you’re used to.