How African women are using jobtechs to close the labour gap
Women are turning to jobtech platforms to overcome barriers in traditional labour markets. Data shows they’re earning more, staying longer, and even leading the platforms themselves.
Bonface Orucho, bird story agency
When Awazi Angbalaga Joshua launched Shaaré in Nigeria, her goal was to connect skilled workers to people who needed their services.
Using no-code tools and support from her community, she built a home services platform that made connection easier, faster, and more consistent.
“Shaaré is a business I built with some of the smartest people I know, often through the hardest nights,” she explained.
Shaaré is part of a growing wave of ventures across Africa using jobtech to expand access to work, especially for women navigating informal economies.
“There were times I doubted, not the vision or relevance of the product, but my ability to carry it forward in the long run,” she reflected.
“But today, Shaaré is helping hundreds of people earn income every week… The impact has grown beyond our immediate market and is now being recognized internationally.”
Women’s participation in Africa’s labour market still lags behind that of men. As of 2020, only 52 percent of women across the continent were active in the labour force compared to 72 percent of men, according to 2021 data by the International Labour Organization.
In North Africa, the rate drops to 25 percent.
Yet in Africa’s digital labour platforms, a more complex picture is emerging, one where women, often overlooked in traditional labour systems, are getting more involved.
According to a 2025 study by Jobtech Alliance, based on data from 78,000 users, women on digital work platforms earn 24 percent more on average than men, and they stay longer, with a 19 percent higher retention rate.
Although only 45% of income earners on these platforms are women, they make up 48% of those earning what the report calls “quality income.”
According to Janet Wandia, a gender lead at Jobtech Alliance, the trend stems from how the platforms are built and who they are built for.
“When digital work systems are intentionally designed with women’s needs in mind, the outcomes speak volumes, not just in terms of gender equity, but also business performance.”
Jobtech platforms often operate on commission-based models where user success directly correlates to platform revenue. Women users, with their higher retention and performance, present a strong business case. They cost less to acquire and onboard, stay active longer, and complete more consistent work.
According to Wandia, these trends reinforce what microfinance once proved: when women are given equitable access, they often deliver more dependable returns.
Several dynamics explain this performance gap. Jobtech’s flexibility is especially beneficial to women, who spend nearly three times more time on unpaid care work than men, according to UN Women.
Across Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, more than 78% of women in a 2022 World Bank study cited the ability to set their own hours as the primary benefit of digital work.
In South Africa, nearly three-quarters of women on digital platforms said they could better balance work and family responsibilities. Moreover, jobtech helps circumvent the “who-you-know” dynamics of offline labour markets, which typically reward older men with established networks.
Digital platforms often rely on algorithmic matching and measurable performance, opening up access to women who might otherwise be excluded.
Microtask platforms like Rwazi show that nearly 58% of their workforce is female.
On Wowzi, a creator-matching platform, women represent only a third of influencers but account for more than half of those accessing quality jobs. They earn 23% more than men and exhibit a 23% higher retention rate. In agent models, women outperform again.
Marianne Mwaniki, founder of Avunja, a Kenyan jobtech, notes that while more men initially download the app, women consistently deliver better results and stay longer.
Most team leads on the platform are women, a trend supported by broader evidence. A 2020 World Bank study in the Democratic Republic of Congo found that female customers are not only more likely to engage with female agents, but their transaction volumes with them are also 66% higher.
It is not just as users that women are thriving. They are now designing and leading the very platforms enabling this shift.
In Nigeria, Chinwe Udo-Davis, founder of Installer, left a corporate job to build a cleantech platform connecting solar installers to clean energy firms. Her platform has trained over 500 technicians and completed more than 1,800 projects.
Through the InstallHer initiative, she is specifically training women in solar installation, with the goal of skilling 10,000 female technicians across Africa by 2030.
For Chinwe, energy access is not just about powering homes—it’s about powering livelihoods. Installer is more than a tech solution; it’s a tool for economic transformation led by women, for women.
Awazi and Chinwe are part of a growing ecosystem of women-led innovation pushing the jobtech frontier across Africa. In Kenya, platforms like Avunja and Africa AI Labs are developing targeted onboarding and financial tools for female workers.
In Rwanda and Uganda, experiments with inclusive freelance models are beginning to create more accessible pipelines into digital labour for women.
Many of these platforms receive support from gender-intentional accelerators such as TECA and Catalyst Fund, which have ensured that at least a third of their startup cohorts are women-led and actively prioritize female user inclusion.
Yet none of this happens by chance. Wandia emphasizes that high female participation is the result of thoughtful platform architecture, from accessible interfaces to algorithmic fairness, from safety protocols to referral incentives.
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