What Tunga Is: Not Recruitment, Not Outsourcing, Not a Platform
Tunga is closest to a staffing agency, with two differences: the professionals work remotely from their own country, and Tunga keeps the role filled for as long as it runs. Software engineers, AI operators, product managers and other digital professionals from across Africa join your team and work under your direction, while Tunga handles finding and vetting them, contracts, payments and compliance, onboarding, keeping them, and replacing them when someone leaves or it isn't working. The professionals are independent freelancers contracted by Tunga, and you have one contract, with Tunga. It is not project outsourcing, because the work stays yours, and it is not a freelance marketplace, because every person is selected and supported by Tunga's own team.
Is Tunga a recruitment agency?
No, although recruitment is available as an option. A recruitment agency finds someone, you hire them, and from then on the staffing side is yours: the employment contract, compliance, onboarding, and starting over when the person leaves.
With Tunga, the professional stays contracted by Tunga. If you would rather hire someone yourself, you can pay a one-time recruitment fee, or take a professional over after a period of working together. In practice almost no client chooses this, because taking someone on means taking the whole staffing side back.
Is it outsourcing?
No. In outsourcing, a provider takes over a piece of work and delivers an outcome; the provider also decides how the work gets done. With Tunga, the professional works in your team, in your tools and your rhythm, and you decide what gets built, how, and whether it is good. Tunga does not coordinate the work. What Tunga takes over is everything around having the person: the contract, payments, compliance, onboarding, regular check-ins, and replacement.
Is it a staffing agency or staff augmentation?
This is the closest comparison. As with staff augmentation, a person joins your team and works under your direction, and you pay for their time. The differences:
- Remote, from their own country. Nobody relocates. The professionals work from countries across Africa, in time zones within a few hours of Central European Time.
- Tunga keeps the role filled. Staff augmentation is often transactional, and turnover at the provider is one of the weaknesses buyers report most often. Tunga replaces without a time limit, and in 2025 about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job.
- A delivery manager on every account, who checks in with both you and the professional so that issues surface early.
Is it a freelance platform?
No. On a freelance platform you search, vet, contract and manage people yourself, and when someone leaves you start over. Tunga selects every professional through its own process: identity verification, a multi-stage test cycle with personal interviews, a review of their code, and screening for cheating. You get a shortlist and make the choice yourself.
Where do the people work, and who are they contracted by?
The professionals work remotely from their own country, as independent freelancers contracted by Tunga. The pool covers 38 African countries, not only South Africa, and includes English- and French-speaking professionals. Many have worked for European or American clients before. You sign one contract, with Tunga, and receive one invoice per month based on the hours actually worked.
What does "social enterprise" mean at Tunga?
Tunga is a commercial company. The social part is in how the model is built: the professionals get interesting international work, good fees that are paid on time, and a personal contact at Tunga, and Tunga's own Academy prepares people for international roles. Tunga was founded in 2015 on the conviction that geographic borders are not a measure of capability.
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 freelancers contracted by Tunga 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 speaking Dutch with your clients, or when saving on cost is the main reason you're looking.
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