Digital platforms have revolutionised the way in which workers and SMEs are being matched to income-generating opportunities in Africa.
These virtual marketplaces matched an estimated 4.8 million workers to job opportunities in 2018, and insight2impact’s research has shown robust growth of 37% in the number of platforms that are operational across eight African focus countries1 in 2019.
As the COVID-19 crisis unfolds in Africa in 2020, we’re exploring how the platform ecosystem is likely to pivot and how digital platforms could play a role in contributing to more rapid digitisation of value chains in Africa.
We invite you to join us as we share our research in discussion with experts in a webinar series on Africa’s digital platform ecosystem.
The first webinar in the series focused on: How has the COVID-19 crisis impacted digital platform activity in Africa so far?
We presented an overview of the digital platform economy showcasing the robust growth of Africa’s digital platform ecosystem in 2019 and explored with expert speakers the early impact of COVID-19 on platform business models and workers. As the crisis hits Africa, winners and losers are emerging in various sectors, and platforms have a crucial role to play in contributing to more rapid digitisation of African economies, in our view. For a summary of key insights from the webinar and our current thinking, read a blog we published here.
Speakers:
Next webinar
Our next webinar in this series will take place on 6 May at 16h00 CAT. We will be exploring: The role of digital financial services in providing value to platform participants and platform business models. Register here.
We encourage you to reach out to our team at digitalplatforms@cenfri.org for further information on our portfolio of applied research, as well as opportunities to collaborate and/or fund forthcoming projects in this space.