Pakistan's IT Exports Hit $4.6 Billion. Here's What That Actually Means If You're Hiring Abroad
Mian Jawad Ahmad · · 3 min read
Pakistan's IT and telecom export remittances reached USD 4.6 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, up from USD 3.814 billion the year before. That is roughly 20.6% annual growth, and it comes from the State Bank of Pakistan's own remittance data rather than an industry forecast, which matters because forecasts and remittances often tell different stories.
June 2026 alone brought in USD 416 million, against USD 339 million in June 2025. April had already set a monthly record at USD 423 million.
We should be honest about one thing: the sector missed its own USD 5 billion target. That gap is the more interesting number.
Why the target was missed, and why it doesn't matter much
The year was not smooth. Exports slipped from USD 437 million in December 2025 to USD 374 million in January and USD 365 million in February, before recovering through March and April. Anyone reading only the annual figure would miss a two-month dip of roughly 16%.
That volatility is what a maturing export sector looks like. It reflects contract cycles, currency movement, and the reality that a large share of these earnings come from a long tail of small firms and freelancers rather than a handful of giants. A market that grows 20% while wobbling quarter to quarter is behaving normally. A market that grows smoothly in a straight line usually has fewer participants.
What this changes for a company considering Pakistan
The headline number is not the useful part. Three things underneath it are.
The talent pool is now deep enough to be boring. When a country exports USD 4.6 billion of software services, hiring a React Native developer is no longer an adventure. There is an established labour market, salary benchmarks, and people who have already worked to Western delivery standards. The risk shifts from "can we find anyone" to "can we find the right one", which is a much more ordinary problem.
Compliance infrastructure exists. Firms working with international clients are registered with the Pakistan Software Export Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and provincial IT boards. Encoder Bytes holds all three, plus KPPPRA and Skills Development Council registration. This is unglamorous and it is exactly what your finance and legal teams will ask about first.
The time zone is a genuine advantage for European clients. Pakistan Standard Time is UTC+5. A UK team starting at 9am overlaps with a Pakistani team's afternoon; a Dubai team overlaps almost entirely. Compare that with the roughly 10 to 12 hour gap between the UK and East Asia, where "overlap" means someone is working at an unreasonable hour.
The part nobody advertises
Growth of 20% a year means demand is outstripping the supply of genuinely senior people. Mid-level developers are plentiful. Architects, staff engineers, and people who have carried a product through several years of production are not, and they are expensive relative to local norms because they are competing globally.
If your plan is to hire five juniors and hope a senior emerges, that plan works no better here than anywhere else. What works is a small number of experienced people who set the standards, with capacity built around them.
We have placed 56 developers with companies in the UK and UAE this way: 29 with Infocabs, a UK taxi dispatch platform, 12 with JBP Solutions, 7 with Dropo Tech, and 8 with Zooni in the UAE. In every one of those engagements the client interviewed the individuals themselves. That is the model that survives past the first six months.
What to ask before you commit
Ask who owns the intellectual property, in writing, before any code is written. Ask whether the people you interviewed are the people who will do the work. Ask what happens when someone resigns, because they will. Ask to speak to a client who has been with the supplier for more than two years, since anyone can produce a happy client from month three.
The USD 4.6 billion tells you the market is real. It tells you nothing about whether a particular supplier is.
Source: State Bank of Pakistan IT and telecom export remittance data, FY2025-26.