BY DARGIE KAHSAY
During the early months of the outbreak of COVID-19 period, due to restrictions, closing of business activities and fear of movements from place to place, workers in the informal sector were in troubles to earn income for their daily needs. Though everyone was in a difficult condition during the tough period of the COVID-19 era, the informal sector was seriously affected and workers and professionals that depend on daily incomes within the informal sector were in serious troubles. Especially, technicians, movable workers, mechanics, contract workers and professionals working in private households and private businesses passed a very tough time.
Furthermore, the early periods of the COVID-19 era were seriously bad for experts, professionals and individuals who were in search of jobs. It was difficult to go out to search vacancies and to find vacancy posts. Businesses were closed, activities were restricted and finding new job opportunities was a tough task. Though the time was tough to hire new employees, since life was continued, the demand of experts and professionals in different sectors was there, especially for temporary tasks. The problem was the mechanism to connect those professionals searching for job and the companies or individuals who demand professionals especially in the informal sector.
GoodayOn, an online local platform with the target of connecting professionals in the informal sector, gig workers, with employee companies and individuals was launched in September 2020. The platform launched using both online mobile application technology and hotline platforms to connect job seekers and professional seekers online for temporary and permanent tasks. The situation during that time motivated the founders to launch the technology.
According to GoodayOn, the digital platform is a gig marketplace launched to disrupt the informal sector in Ethiopia. The service is available as a mobile application and is also accessible via a call center hotline, 9675. The service provides digital platform for gig workers where they get digital presence to advertise their services and preferred working conditions. “When employers go on GoodayOn mobile app and search, they are directly matched with gig workers based on location, qualification, and experience of gig workers without any third-party involvement.”
Since then, GoodayOn has continued its service of connecting gig workers with hiring companies and individuals. After two years’ service, GoodayOn becomes among 40 world companies with impactful outcomes for the society by World Summit Award (WSA). GoodayOn won the WSA award in Smart Settlement and Urbanization category for the year 2022 recognizing its gig digital solution’s contribution for the achievement of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs).
WSA on its website disclosed that “GoodayOn gig platform is selected as World Summit Award Winner 2022 in the Smart Settlements & Urbanization category. The WSA Winners 2022 provide a meaningful selection of worldwide digital solutions contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The gig platform company will receive its Award in smart settlements & urbanization category at the WSA Global Congress, March 08-11, 2023 in Puebla, Mexico.”
Approached by The Ethiopian Herald, GoodayOn Co-founder and General Manager, Tigist Afework said that the platform was launched to create an opportunity for the professionals engaging in the informal sector through modern technology to get jobs during the COVID-19 period. During the initial period, it aims to connect professionals with work in their surrounding since traveling to remote areas was not easy during that time due to COVID-19. The platform was providing services without payments and it helped tens of thousands of professionals to get job opportunities during the past two years and five months period.
As to her, during the lockdown due to COVID-19, those professionals earing their income with irregular daily works were struggling to get their daily consumption. The platform helped movable housemaid professionals, contract workers, technicians and mechanics and electricians to get temporary jobs in their surroundings without traveling to remote areas during the tough time.
“GoodayOn platform is a platform to connect gig professionals through modern technology. It aims to support the unprivileged sector, not an agency to take commissions from the job seekers and the hiring companies,” Tigist said.
Now, GoodayOn platform gets WSA recognition for its impactful service for the society using modern technological developments. Tigist stated that “WSA recognized the impact of the platform in providing services that supports tens of thousands of gig professionals to get job opportunity.” For Tigist, there are online platforms that focus on posting vacancies and there are also agencies targeting commissions from job seekers and hiring companies, what GoodayOn makes different is in the first place it is not an agency to collect commissions and secondly the introduction of technology on the informal sector to help those uncertified professionals to connect with hires. This effort awarded the platform recognition by WSA in Smart Settlement and Urbanization category, she added.
According to Tigist over the last 28 months, since its launch, GoodayOn has recorded over 250,000 gig worker searches and successfully matched over 77,000 connections between employers and gig workers in and around Addis Ababa. She added that the user base of GoodayOn is steadily expanding and GoodayOn mobile app has recorded over 100,000 downloads from the Google play store of which over 35 thousand of them are experts and similarly its call center traffic is growing.
Recently, GoodayOn organized an event to announce its WSA award winning and to thank its stakeholders. During the event, State Minister of Innovation and Technology, Huria Ali stated that the government of Ethiopia is ready to support companies that create digital platforms that would benefit underprivileged sections of the society.
As to the state minister, the private sector has the potential to play leading role in building digital economy. Huria added that Ethiopia has established a Digital Ethiopia 2025 strategy and inclusiveness is among the focus areas of the strategy. “The technology is vital in developing countries like Ethiopia to transform the informal sector to formal especially in the job creation opportunity” Huria stated adding that “the platform will contribute great role on creating new job opportunities and new procedures in the sector that have not exploited yet.”
For the state minister, Ethiopia is striving to build prosperous country and to achieve its goal; the government of Ethiopia is taking all necessary reform measures to accelerate the transformation to prosperity. Without technological advancement, it is unthinkable to achieve prosperity and the technological transformation is among the priority sectors in the journey to development. Hence, digital platforms initiating by the private sector would have a vital role in facilitating the digitalization efforts of the government and Ministry of Innovation and Technology will continue to supports similar initiatives, Huria stated.
According to GoodayOn’s General Manager, Tigist, the platform creates an opportunity for gig professionals like housemaid, technicians, tutor service providers, domestic workers, accountants, electricians, electronic repairs. As to her, during the past two years, the platform was providing services for around 64 fields. But now, after assessments from their two year experience, the platform gives due focus for four categories, domestic housemaid professionals, electronic maintenance professionals, repairing work professionals and professionals for small businesses.
According to Tigist, GoodayOn on its platform creates a feedback profile for the professionals they hired. This experience of feedback profile for the experts and professionals promotes the professionals more than a written work experience by companies. It helps the professionals to promote themselves for their career.
As to Tigist, this platform is promoting part time works in Ethiopia even for students and workers who want to earn additional income with their talents. “Even those certified professional graduated from colleges and universities are getting temporary opportunity with their natural talents to work part time works parallel to searching vacancies with their profession.”
Tigist stated that the platform is planning to expand its service out of Addis Ababa to different cities of Ethiopia. To further expand its services, it calls strong support from stakeholders especially governmental institutions.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 20 JANUARY 2023
