Richard Putley Co-Founder and CEO, Executives in Africa
Over three months ago, the message in my previous newsletter was that activity across Africa had been adversely affected by the extended period of global volatility. However, despite this trend, confidence remained high and there was a significant increase in new assignments, renewed expansion plans and a much more active candidate market.
The last quarter has seen this high level of activity maintained and increased to and beyond the levels we experienced in 2023. Over this period, one of the clearest trends across African hiring has been a shift towards more selective, execution-focused recruitment rather than indiscriminate growth hiring. Companies are still recruiting, but boards, investors and leadership teams are becoming more demanding about the type of people they bring in. In many sectors, the emphasis is moving away from growth at almost any cost and towards profitability, cash generation, governance, operational resilience and disciplined execution. For senior hiring, this is creating stronger demand for experienced operators, particularly COOs, CFOs, transformation leaders and commercially minded functional heads who can demonstrate that they have improved performance rather than simply managed growth.
Some sectors continue to show particularly strong momentum. FMCG, financial services, fintech, digital infrastructure, energy and mining remain important sources of senior hiring demand across the continent. Investment in areas such as facility & market expansion, lending, payments, data centres, renewable energy, mining infrastructure and large-scale transformation programmes is creating requirements that extend well beyond technical specialists. Businesses increasingly need senior leaders across commercial, finance, risk, compliance, technology, operations and project development functions. This is particularly relevant where organisations are entering new markets, raising capital or adapting to more complex regulatory and investor expectations.
Another important development is the continued localisation and Africanisation of leadership teams. Multinationals are placing greater emphasis on local and regional leadership, while African organisations are competing for executives who have experience across multiple markets. Candidates who combine strong local knowledge with international standards and experience are especially valuable. At the same time, senior executives themselves are increasingly mobile. Recent executive research has suggested that a very high proportion of African leaders are open to new opportunities, even when they are not actively looking. For employers, this means retention risk is becoming just as important as recruitment.
AI is also beginning to change what employers mean by strong talent. Across financial services, healthcare, energy, professional services and other sectors, organisations are moving beyond experimentation and beginning to incorporate AI into everyday operations and decision-making. At senior level, this does not necessarily mean employers want technical AI specialists. Increasingly, they need leaders who understand how to redesign processes, improve productivity, challenge existing ways of working and make better decisions using technology. At the same time, this is increasing the importance of human capabilities such as judgement, leadership, creativity, influence and commercial understanding.
Taken together, the main trend is not simply that Africa is hiring more. It is that organisations are becoming much more particular about who they hire and what evidence they expect candidates to provide. The premium is increasingly on leaders who have already managed complexity, whether that means operating across multiple African markets, navigating currency volatility, regulatory change, digital transformation, capital constraints or difficult stakeholder environments.
AI is also beginning to change what employers mean by strong talent
September 2026
