Flattening the COVID-19 curve has solicited a global policy response limiting the physical proximity between people. The potential economic impact for Africa is still being estimated for every type of worker and enterprise, and the complexity in our ability to understand the scale of the impact is not only a function of this crisis being unprecedented, but also a function of our limited understanding of the scale of African gig work.
Digital platforms have revolutionised the way workers are matched to job opportunities in Africa. The multi-sided markets that digital platforms connect play a pivotal role in this, having matched an estimated 4.8 million microworkers to income opportunities in 2018.
Location- or place-based work has been among the categories of platform work that have seen the greatest growth potential in Africa. However, as national authorities respond to the COVID-19 crisis, these place-based-work sectors, such as e-hailing and domestic work, have been limited due to the proximity risks. On the other hand, logistics/courier platforms have, in certain geographies, seen exponential growth in demand over the past few weeks, as the delivery of essential goods and services becomes a pivotal priority for governments.
In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, insight2impact is shifting the sharing of its work on digital platforms online. We were pleased to invite you to join our experts for the first webinar on Africa’s digital economy, which will provide an updated market overview of Africa’s digital platforms and explore burning issues around the crisis:
Our speaker line-up included:
Annabel Schiff (co-Director on the Mastercard Foundation’s Learning Partnership at Caribou Digital), Herman Singh (CEO of Future Advisory), Hilda Kragha (CEO of Jobberman), Chernay Johnson (Engagement Manager, Cenfri and insight2impact) and Matthew Dunn (Senior Researcher, Cenfri and insight2impact)
For more information on this webinar, please contact Matthew Dunn.