What if the best outsourcing destination wasn’t India but Africa?
Yes, Africa combines the best of both worlds! The terms nearshore and offshore frequently appear in outsourcing strategies. Nearshore refers to countries that are geographically and culturally close (such as the Maghreb for Europe), while offshore typically refers to more distant destinations, historically associated with Asia. But things are changing. Africa is emerging as a hybrid zone, offering the cultural and linguistic proximity of nearshore, while maintaining offshore-level operational costs. Even better, Africa benefits from time zones that align perfectly with Europe unlike India or the Philippines.
From Morocco to Madagascar, including West Africa and South Africa, the African continent now offers a wealth of skilled talent, often French- or English-speaking, and available for remote work. In this shifting landscape, it is essential for HR leaders and CIOs to understand how to capitalize on this new opportunity. This article breaks down the differences between nearshore and offshore, and explains why Africa is now the best option for sourcing, hiring, and managing remote teams.
Nearshore: The strategic proximity of the Maghreb to Europe
Nearshoring involves working with service providers or teams located in nearby countries, both geographically and culturally. For European companies, this primarily means the Maghreb countries: Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, which offer access to a qualified, often French-speaking workforce just a few hours away by plane. The advantages are many: cost reduction, easier communication, nearly identical time zones, and cultural familiarity. For a French manager, working with a team based in Casablanca or Tunis barely affects planning and coordination.
The Maghreb also benefits from outsourcing-friendly policies, such as free zones, tax incentives, and good tech infrastructure. In call centers, web development, or customer support, these countries have become well-established European references. Nearshore is thus a reassuring choice for companies looking to outsource without sacrificing responsiveness or quality.
Offshore: Head toward Madagascar, Mauritius, or South Africa
Historically, offshore referred to destinations like India or the Philippines, offering very low costs but at the price of significant time zone and cultural gaps. Today, African countries such as Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa are positioning themselves in this space by offering the same level of competitiveness without the extreme time zone differences. In Madagascar, a developer or support agent can work in the same time zone as Paris. In Mauritius, the time difference is only 2 to 3 hours depending on the season. South Africa, meanwhile, operates at UTC+2, just like most of Eastern Europe.
These countries have growing tech ecosystems, well-trained university graduates, and strong proficiency in English or French. African offshore is therefore a serious alternative for companies aiming to cut costs by 30–60% while maintaining high levels of control and communication with their teams.
Time zone: Africa’s hidden competitive edge
The major issue with Asian offshore lies in the time difference, which can reach up to 7 or 8 hours between Europe and India. This complicates real-time collaboration, causes response delays, and often forces teams to work uncomfortable or shifted hours. Africa, by contrast, shares a largely similar time zone with Europe. From Morocco (UTC+1) to Madagascar (UTC+3), real-time communication remains smooth and natural.
This is a key factor for agile workflows and real-time team management. For companies wanting to maintain a European pace, hold daily meetings, or provide instant customer support, Africa is a strategic choice. This time zone alignment also allows for better supervision, regular follow-ups, and greater transparency in task execution.
Cost, skills, and stability: Africa’s new advantages
African countries now combine three key factors: competitive wages, a growing pool of tech and back-office talent, and increasingly favorable regulatory frameworks for outsourcing. Whether it’s IT support, web development, admin assistance, or customer relationship management, there’s no shortage of qualified professionals.
In both West and East Africa, incubators, bootcamps, and online training are continuously strengthening local skills. Political stability is improving in many regions, and digital infrastructure is following suit. For European companies, this paves the way for a more agile, responsible, and often more sustainable HR strategy.
Nearshore vs Offshore: Do you really need to choose?
The reality today is that the line between nearshore and offshore is blurring. Thanks to digitization, rising skill levels among African talent, and aligned time zones, Africa offers the advantages of both models. A company could, for example, work with a tech team in Tunis for web development and a back-office team in Madagascar for support functions all within a unified framework.
By diversifying locations within the same time zone, businesses reduce risk, increase flexibility, and optimize costs. It’s a smart, hybrid approach, perfectly suited to today’s challenges: competitiveness, social responsibility, and scalability.
A booming global market: Nearshore and offshore in numbers
The global outsourcing market (BPO – Business Process Outsourcing) was valued at $261 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $512 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research. Offshore remains the dominant model, especially in Asia (India, Philippines, Vietnam), but nearshore is gaining ground due to the growing need for agility, cultural proximity, and increasing regulatory demands (GDPR, data sovereignty).
According to Deloitte, 70% of European companies now consider a nearshoring or partial reshoring strategy, especially for sensitive functions like customer service, IT, and cybersecurity. Cost is no longer the only factor: service quality, responsiveness, compliance, and real-time communication are now just as important.
In Europe, top nearshore destinations remain Poland, Portugal, Morocco, and Tunisia. Meanwhile, Sub-Saharan Africa (Madagascar, Senegal, Kenya, Ghana) is rising quickly on the list of countries to watch. Notably, the annual growth rate of offshore outsourcing in Africa exceeds 12% faster than in any other region of the world.
Finally, hybrid platforms like Talenteum or Breedj now unify both models: qualified remote talent + legal compliance + integrated management platforms. This model is attracting both SMEs and large corporations. As global value chains are being restructured, betting on African, French-speaking, and European-aligned talent is becoming a winning strategy for future-oriented companies.
The American model: Latin America leading the nearshoring race
While Europe looks toward the Maghreb and Africa, the United States is increasingly turning to Latin America for nearshore strategies. This trend accelerated significantly after the pandemic, with rising geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China, the need to secure supply chains, and the growth of remote work. Countries like Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Argentina have become go-to hubs for software development, customer support, and cybersecurity.
According to McKinsey, nearly 80% of American tech companies reported relocating part of their production or services to nearshore destinations since 2021. Mexico stands out thanks to its geographic proximity, skilled workforce, and time zone alignment with major U.S. cities like Austin, San Francisco, and New York. Brazil, for its part, has become a major pool of specialized, often bilingual developers capable of delivering complex projects in agile mode.
The American model confirms a global trend: the search for balance between cost, proximity, flexibility, and talent. The U.S., like Europe, shows that it’s no longer necessary to go halfway around the world to outsource effectively. Nearshore is becoming a strategic response to needs for productivity, resilience, and sovereignty. In this light, Africa can play the same role for Europe that Latin America plays for the U.S. provided its ecosystems, training, and talent-company connections are well structured.
How Breedj supports this new strategy
At Breedj, we’ve developed a unique platform to help you source, recruit, and manage remote talent in Africa in full legal compliance. Thanks to our presence in over 10 African countries and our hybrid model (freelance or employer of record), you get quick access to qualified and available talent without the legal and administrative burdens of setting up locally.
We offer you the best of both worlds: the flexibility of freelancing, the security of a compliant model (EOR/Employer of Record), and the performance of a team working in your time zone. Our technology allows you to manage everything from one interface: sourcing, recruiting, contracting, payroll, and mission tracking.
Choosing Breedj means choosing a strategic HR partner for successful, responsible, scalable outsourcing in Africa fully aligned with European needs.
