Tunisia's Tech Brain Drain: What It Means for Fintech

Tunisia trains engineers that companies in Europe, Canada and elsewhere want to hire, and more of them are leaving each year. For fintech startups, the brain drain shows up as missing senior developers, rising salaries and teams that need rebuilding every couple of years. This article looks at the numbers and at what founders can realistically do about them.

How many engineers leave Tunisia?

The most cited figures come from the Ordre des ingénieurs tunisiens, the professional body for engineers:

• In October 2025, the Order's dean, Mohsen Gharssi (also spelled Ghrissi), said more than 45,000 Tunisian engineers had left the country, out of about 110,000 registered engineers (La Presse, Webdo).
• In March 2025, former dean Kamel Sahnoun had given a figure of 39,000 departures out of 90,000 registered engineers, a rate of nearly 20 a day.
• Figures attributed to the Order and published by Managers in May 2026 put annual departures at about 6,500 in 2024 and more than 7,000 in 2025. On current trends they would pass 8,000 in 2026, but that is a projection.

These numbers have limits. They cover engineers registered with the Order, not all software developers, many of whom are not registered. The Order has also not published a detailed method, and the totals differ between statements. They should be read as orders of magnitude.

The wider picture: a generation that wants to leave

Engineers are part of a broader trend. Arab Barometer surveys show that the share of Tunisians who say they are considering emigration has risen sharply since 2011:

• 22% in 2011;
• 46% in the 2023–2024 wave, the highest level the survey has recorded in Tunisia;
• 41% in the 2025 wave, including 67% of people under 30, compared with 34% of those aged 30 and over (as reported by La Presse).

In the 2023–2024 wave, 89% of potential migrants cited economic reasons. Wanting to leave is not the same as leaving, but the figures show how strong the pull is for exactly the age group startups hire.

Why engineers go

The reasons are mostly economic:

• Pay. Speaking in October 2025, Gharssi criticised starting salaries of 600 to 700 dinars a month for young engineers. He also criticised pay of about 1,500 dinars for engineers who manage projects worth millions.
• Demand abroad. Gharssi said Tunisian engineering skills are in high demand in Europe, Canada and parts of Asia.
• Career paths. Engineers who want to work on products that compete internationally often see more options abroad than at home.

What the tech sector still has

Tunisia still has a substantial pool of tech workers. In July 2026, Fakher Zaïbi, director general of the national employment and skills observatory, said the digital sector employs 120,000 people, 104,000 of them in the private sector. The sector accounts for more than 3% of GDP, or over 11% including telecoms. He called for more graduates and better pay and working conditions to retain talent. For fintech, the problem is less a lack of developers than a shortage of experienced ones: senior engineers, security specialists, data engineers, and people who have built regulated financial systems.

What it means for fintech startups

Fintech is more exposed than most sectors, for three reasons:

1. Regulated products need senior people. Payment systems, AML controls and security audits cannot be left to junior teams. The BCT expects payment institutions to have proper risk, compliance and IT functions.
2. Startups compete with foreign salaries. A local startup often competes for the same developer with a European company hiring remotely, and pays in dinars.
3. Employment rules have changed. Since the 2025 labour reform, fixed-term contracts are limited and labour subcontracting is banned (see the labour law reform and startups). In August 2025, the staffing group Adecco announced it would leave Tunisia, citing the law. Startups now hire core staff directly on permanent contracts. This increases commitment on both sides.

What founders can do

There is no single fix, but some approaches recur:

• Use the Startup Act tools. The Startup Act lets employees take up to two years of leave to found a startup and covers social contributions during the label period. That lowers the real cost of each hire.
• Offer equity, not just salary. Exits such as InstaDeep's acquisition by BioNTech show that Tunisian tech equity can be worth a great deal. Few employees hold stock options today.
• Hire from the diaspora. Engineers who left are a network, not just a loss. Some work remotely for Tunisian companies, invest, or come back as senior hires. The diaspora also matters as a market (see remittances).
• Train juniors and plan for turnover. Documentation, code reviews and shared knowledge reduce the damage when someone leaves.

The bottom line

Emigration of engineers is a structural fact in Tunisia, not a passing crisis. The Order's figures suggest thousands leave every year, and survey data show that most young Tunisians would consider leaving. Fintech founders who build on that assumption, with competitive equity, real responsibility and remote-friendly teams, will keep more of their people than those who hope the trend will reverse.