Africa

A new kind of company is revolutionising Africa's gig economy

A man waits for M-Pesa customers at his shop in Kibera in Kenya's capital Nairobi December 31, 2014. Safaricom, Kenya's biggest telecoms firm, is a model of how technology can be used to financially include millions of people with mobile telephones but without access to traditional infrastructure such as the banks that are available to the wealthy or those living in cities. Safaricom in 2007 pioneered its M-Pesa mobile money transfer technology, now used across Africa, Asia and Europe. It proved that money can be made from people who earn a few dollars a day.

Can 'bridge companies' like M-Pesa forge links between Africa's formal and informal economies? Image: REUTERS/Noor Khamis

Aubrey Hruby
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AfricaFuture of WorkEmerging-Market Multinationals
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