In the past decade, a $1 billion jobs market has arisen around technologies that split activities into smaller tasks that can be completed over the internet.
According to a study conducted in Kenya, the youth of Africa can earn up to $7 per day if they choose to work in microwork.
According to the African Development Bank, Microwork has the potential to create jobs for gig workers of any skill level and boost employment for Africa's booming youth population.
According to the MCV study, the costs incurred in payment collection, as well as other barriers, have limited the use of microwork in Africa. The pilot which was conducted in Nairobi, Kenya, found that digital stable coins and mobile wallet could be used to reduce costs in cross-border payments.
Other partners in the study were Celo, a mobile-first DeFi platform, Kotani Pay, a technology stack that enables blockchain protocols, and Appen, a publicly traded data company.
We trained 200 youth to use a mobile app and wallet to access digital microwork from global platforms. Scott Onder, Senior Managing Director, said that the pilot tested how stable coins could reduce the costs and challenges of sending and receiving cross-border micropayments.
Celo partner Will Le said that the study confirmed that a new model for tapping talent across borders was introduced by reducing financial frictions. Stable coins could greatly reduce the cost of sending money and foster cross-border commerce.
The trial participants were paid a few seconds after completing the task using Celo dollars, a Celo native stable coin that tracks the value of the US dollar. The payments were temporarily stored in Celo's digital wallet, Valora, and could be cash out at any time, with the conversion enabled by Kotani Pay.
Remittances, including payments for online jobs, made over 3.5% of the GDP of the country in 2011. With the global weighted average cost of sending money at 4.6%, it's possible that Kenyans are losing out on $100 million a year.
The average cost of sending money to Africa is higher than the global average, so the savings are potentially even greater. The total potential impact to the economy of the country could be over $200 million if all those transactions only cost 2% during the pilot.
The online jobs market in Africa is on a consistent growth path due to an increase in internet penetration in the country. In a country where 36 percent of its 2.6 million workers earn between $176 and $274 per month, at least 1.2 million people are working online.
Payoneer, for example, has policies for withholding payments without explanation and higher charges for lower payouts, which are among the commonly used options for international online jobs.
MCV said that high transaction fees, especially for lower payouts, mean that microworkers often lose a significant portion of their earnings.
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