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Access Bank, Axa Mansard, among other financial industry players, have signed up to VerifyMe’s proprietary Know-Your-Customer (KYC) solution. VerifyMe offers real-time ID verification that is compliant with CBN tier 3 and international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) standards. Organizations can access up to 200 verifications per minute for faster decision making. Get started now.

Endeavor Nigeria is launching our flagship annual scaleup entrepreneurship forum, Catalysing Conversations on Friday, September 13, 2019, in Lagos. Catalysing Conversations 2019 will be chaired by H.E. Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN, GCON), Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and features guest speaker, Efosa Ojomo, co-author of ‘The Prosperity Paradox: How Innovation Can Lift Nations Out of Poverty’. 

Other speakers include Endeavor Entrepreneurs – Bukky George (HealthPlus), Etop Ikpe (Cars45), GB Agboola (Flutterwave) and Kene Okwuosa (FilmHouse).

Catalysing Conversations is an invite-only event, but we are opening up 10 guest slots to TechCabal Daily readers. If you’re interested in attending, please register your interest through this link.

However, California lawmakers believe that these companies are growing their revenues off the labour of gig workers, but have provided no support for these workers in terms of social security, insurance or minimum wage. Mbugua Njihia explained on iAfrikan that freelancing started out as supplemental work, but it has now evolved into full-time jobs for many people. “Our economy has stopped working for working people,” said California governor Gavin Newsom in an op-ed. The state is close to completing a law that will change the definition of who should be called “gig workers”, and could force gig companies to increase welfare and other benefits to these workers. This is the strongest governmental effort to control what many see as the dark side of the gig economy. A 2017 New Yorker article opined that gig companies are promoting a “cannibalistic” work culture that makes it “acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death.”

On Quartz, Alison Griswold writes that while many gig companies like Uber believe that the degree of independence of workers determines their classification, the proposed law holds that a worker is not a freelancer if they perform work that is the normal business of their clients. Andrew Hill writing on the Financial Times explains that user-based rating systems on these platforms show they truly control workers and can “deactivate” them if they fall below a threshold.

But, the proposed law is restricted to California, and there’s little chance that it will get federal support. Regardless, it is an interesting conversation and could become even more important if foreign governments including the European Union (EU) and Africa get interested in it. Already in Canada, gig workers working for Foodara, a food delivery app, are trying to unionise. In Europe, the reappointment of Margrethe Vestager as the EU’s competition chief and the expansion of her work to include Europe’s digital policy could also prop up moves in this direction. And in Africa, more governments are showing greater interests in the activities of digital platforms in recent times. This could mean conversations about the gig economy may not be so remote from the continent either.