Overview
Hacklab Ghana Developer Census 2020 is the first and most comprehensive survey of people who code in Ghana. In 2020, Hacklab Research fielded a survey covering everything from developers’ favorite technologies to their job preferences. This marks the first of annual surveys to be published. This maiden edition witnessed the participation of 272 developers who took the 20-minute survey earlier between November - December 2020.
Despite our survey’s reach and capacity for informing valuable conclusions, we acknowledge that our results don’t represent everyone in the Ghana developer community evenly. We have further work to do to make the Hacklab Ghana Developer Census 2020 a more inclusive, diverse platform, and a reflection in the community at large.
We are committed to building on steps we have taken and improving the coverage, insights and beyond in the coming years to better improve the support and interventions needed to give developers a more enabling ecosystem to thrive. Some of these survey’s results directly guide those efforts. To address the characteristics of our data, be sure to check out where we summarize results by developer persona (Professional Developer, Student) or gender.
We looked at breakdowns by demographics throughout our analysis and its reflection of the distribution of talents.
Want to dive into the results yourself? The anonymized results of the survey are available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!
This maiden edition could not have been successful without the contributions of Twitter and CorrelAid.
About The Hacklab Foundation
The Hacklab Foundation is an international nonprofit organization headquartered in Ghana with a focus on preparing the youth for future digital jobs through technology education and skills development. We achieve this through bootcamps, hackathons, mentorship and coaching, internships, digital skills training, and job placement.
Since our inception in 2015, we have directly impacted over 10,000 people, organized hackathons, robotics, and coding bootcamps for kids between the ages of 7yrs - 13yrs supported 500+ women in tech, 300+ youth were placed in jobs and 250+ youth were placed in internships. Through our partnership with IBM, we launched the Ghana National Digital Skills Training Program in November 2018, with a goal to reach 100,000 people by 2021.
Statement of Inclusion
The Hacklab Foundation believes that creating an equal platform for everyone, irrespective of race, gender, social class, and physical limitations will allow for a fair chance to compete for the same opportunity. This has been at the core of our initiatives.
Key Insights
Here are a few of the top takeaways from this year’s results.
1. Low Female Representation:
Of the 272 respondents, 17% indicated being women. Only 10% of the 130 professional developers are women. However, this percentage has the potential to increase in the upcoming years as 24% of the 84 students are women. Learn more.
2. Geographical Concentration:
70% of the respondents are from the Greater Accra Region. Explore the map.
3. Most Used Languages:
HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Python, and SQL are the most used languages by Ghanaian developers. Learn more about the popularity of other languages and the preferences of professional developers here.
4. Most Familiar Frameworks:
React.js is the most used web framework. Node.js is also a widely used framework. Learn more.
5. Strong Developers’ Communities:
Of the numerous communities listed by the respondents (122), the three largest communities to which they indicated membership were DevCongress (13.6%), Facebook Developer Circle (9.6%), and the Hacklab Foundation (7.4%). See all the communities.
6. Highest Level of Education:
The vast majority of the respondents have at least a secondary high school degree, and 70% indicated having a Bachelor’s degree. Only 4% indicated having a Master’s degree. Learn more.
7. Primary Field of Study:
Most participants study or studied Computer Science or Computer Engineering (55%), followed by Information Technology (11.6%) and Business (5.4%). Learn more.
8. Overtime & Compensation:
62% of the respondents indicated receiving a monthly salary lower than 2000 GHS, this percentage drops to 47.5% for respondents who indicated being professional developers. Around 50% of the respondents work overtime on 3 or more days in a week.
Learn more about the working conditions and salaries of the respondents.
