Uganda’s efforts to align digital skills with real employment opportunities took centre stage at the Refactory Career Expo 2026, as over 1,000 participants from across the tech ecosystem convened to bridge the gap between industry demand and job-ready talent.
Held at the National ICT Innovation Hub, the expo brought together recruiters, developers and industry leaders in what organisers described as a deliberate shift from traditional career fairs to outcome-driven hiring platforms.
Speaking at the event, Refactory Executive Director Michael Niyitegeka said the academy’s core mission had remained focused on skilling talent specifically for employment within the digital economy.
“Everything we did was designed with the end in mind — getting talent into work,” he said, noting that Refactory’s training programmes were co-created with industry to ensure relevance to market needs.
The 2026 edition, themed “The Industry–Talent Expo,” was positioned as a live marketplace where employers directly engaged talent through interviews, mentorship and technical assessments. More than 60 companies had expressed interest in participating, with at least 120 candidates shortlisted for interviews ahead of the event.
Participating firms — including SafeBoda, NFT Consult, Q-Sourcing, Aldelia and Bankai Technologies — engaged talent across roles in software development, data science, product design, IT support and digital operations.
Niyitegeka emphasised that beyond immediate hiring, the expo was designed to help employers build pipelines for recurring opportunities. “Even if companies did not hire on the spot, they left with a shortlist of candidates for future engagement,” he said.
The event featured structured speed networking, live technical demonstrations and Talent Lounge sessions that enabled direct conversations between developers and hiring managers. Organisers said this approach repositioned talent not just as job seekers, but as problem-solvers capable of delivering scalable digital solutions.
A key highlight was the launch of Refactory’s digital job board, a platform designed to aggregate global technology roles and simplify access to employment for graduates. The platform was expected to improve visibility of opportunities and streamline the job search process for developers seeking work in both local and international markets.
The expo was held under the 10X Programme, implemented by Outbox and the United Nations Capital Development Fund in collaboration with Refactory and Women in Technology Uganda, and in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. The initiative aims to impact more than 60,000 young women and create over 46,000 job opportunities within three years.
Niyitegeka noted that Refactory had placed strong emphasis on inclusion, targeting young women, persons with disabilities and refugees. He said women now accounted for nearly 70 percent of the academy’s enrolment, helping to address global gender gaps in STEM fields.
Despite the progress, he highlighted infrastructure challenges — including limited access to computers and reliable internet — as ongoing barriers to wider participation, particularly in upcountry regions.
Refactory Academy, a software-skilling institution, had trained over 700 young people in the past five years, achieving a 91 percent placement rate. Through initiatives like the Career Expo, it continues to position itself as a critical link between training and employment in Uganda’s evolving digital economy.