Building on the Fairwork Observatory report on ride-hailing platforms in Nigeria between 2021 and 2022, this year represents the first comprehensive Fairwork Nigeria report.
Nigeria joined the Fairwork team in the first half of 2022, and the team immediately set out to engage platforms, workers and other industry stakeholders at a forum held at Lagos Business School. Issues that emerged from this initial stakeholder forum included the equitable sharing of the value created in the platform economy, the safety and security of workers, the vulnerability of female workers and the lack of a registered union to ensure the voice of the workers is heard.
On March 31, 2023, the first comprehensive Fairwork project report for Nigeria was released, evaluating the working conditions of eight platforms using the Fairwork principles. Only one of the platforms, Glovo, was able to provide the evidence required to get a score of 4 out of 10. The platforms that were examined were Bolt, Bolt foods, Glovo, Gokada, Jumia Foods, Kwik, Lagos Ride (LagRide), and Uber.
The lead investigator Prof Olayinka David-West explained that the Fairwork project seeks to promote better and more equitable work within the sector by highlighting the best and worst platform economy practices. This is accomplished through a global network of researchers that assess these digital platforms’ working environments. The five Fairwork principles usedby the researchers are fair compensation, fair working conditions, fair contracts, fair management, and fair representation. This initiative emerged as a means to protect workers and to educate both current and potential platforms about the necessity of creating fair working conditions.
The authors of the report offer special thanks to Alexander Ererobe and other staff of Lagos Business School for their administrative support for the project since its inception. Authors: Yinka David-West, Kemi Ogunyemi, Chinyere Emeshie, Amaka Anozie, Daniel Arubayi, Mark Graham.