Is Our Organisation Ready to Work With a Remote Developer?
Most likely, yes. If your team already meets on video, works in shared code repositories and talks in a team chat, most of what a remote developer from across Africa needs is already in place. What the developer needs from you is someone who can say what to build and check whether it is good, access to your code and tools from day 1, and enough work for the agreed hours. Tunga arranges the rest: contracts and payments, device security, onboarding, and a fixed contact at Tunga who checks in with both sides. Without someone to direct the work, no developer works out, remote or local.
Do you need experience with remote work first?
No. Experience with remote colleagues helps, and it is not a condition. Most teams already work partly remote: meetings on video, code in a shared repository, questions in a team chat. A remote developer joins those same channels, and the habits that work for a colleague on a home-working day carry over.
The working day overlaps too. Most of Africa is within 0 to 2 hours of Central European Time, so a developer there works largely the same hours as a European team.
How do you know someone you never see is working? The same way you know it of any colleague: from the work itself, and from a fixed moment to talk. If tasks get done, code gets reviewed and questions come up in the check-in, you see that. If they don't, you see that too, usually within the first weeks. In the first 4 weeks either side can end the engagement at one working day's notice, and if you say it isn't working, Tunga replaces the person at no extra cost.
Someone has to direct the work
A developer, remote or local, needs someone who can say what to build, in what order, and check whether the result is good. In a small company that is often the founder or CTO; in a larger one a product owner or lead developer. If nobody in your company can do that yet, the first hire is someone who can direct the work, a tech lead or product owner, hired yourself or through Tunga. Developers come after that.
What a remote developer needs from you
- Access on day 1. Accounts, repositories, licences and tools ready when the developer starts. Access that isn't ready is the most common reason a first week is lost (see the first weeks with a new professional).
- A regular moment to talk. A daily or weekly check-in on video with the person who directs the work, and the team chat for everything in between.
- Your security and device rules, shared with Tunga before the start.
- Enough work for the agreed hours, full-time or part-time.
- Your own repositories and tools. Code, accounts and documentation stay in your company's systems, so the knowledge stays with you (see only need one developer?).
What you don't have to arrange yourself
You don't need an HR department, a legal entity or payroll in the developer's country, and you don't need to know the labour rules there. Tunga arranges:
- Contracts, payments and compliance. Tunga contracts and pays the professional under the rules of their own country; you have one contract, with Tunga.
- Device security. Before the start, the professional signs Tunga's device security checklist: disk encryption, screen lock, two-factor authentication on your accounts, a VPN on public networks, and more (see device security for remote professionals). If you require a managed laptop, Tunga ships one you have configured, or arranges hardware locally.
- Onboarding. An onboarding call with the professional before day 1, and a kick-off in the first week with a delivery manager, your fixed contact at Tunga.
- Check-ins with both sides, close in the first weeks and at least once a month after that.
- Replacement, at no extra cost, if the person leaves or you say it isn't working. Whether the work is good is your call.
Where Tunga fits
Tunga takes the staffing side off the plate of companies that need digital professionals: software engineers, AI operators, product managers and other digital roles, from across Africa. The client directs the work. Tunga handles finding and vetting, contracts, payments and compliance, onboarding, keeping people, and replacing them when someone leaves or it isn't working. The professionals are independent contractors or employed in their own country through an employer of record, and work remotely from their own country; the client has one contract, with Tunga, and a delivery manager who checks in with both sides. In 2025, about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job. Founded in 2015; 3,500 professionals across 38 African countries and 300+ client companies, as of September 2026.
Tunga is not the right fit when the role has to be on site, when the work means talking to your clients in a language other than English or French, or when saving on cost is the main reason you're looking.
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