Workeez

Workeez APP for informal workers will provide a platform for finding jobs  and encouraging behavioral changes towards savings, continuous learning, accessing health insurance and pension schemes. Workeez's easy-to-use technology-based solution includes a 24/7 online support. It's target is 59.7 million people (approximately 70%) of Nigeria’s working population. Dewdrop will serve as a nodal agency to bridge the gap between informal workers, potential employers. 

Dewdrop is committed to serving the undeserved informal sector by providing access to tools that help them find decent jobs, establish a savings culture, and social protection services that address their health and retirement needs. 

The informal sector has a high labour-absorption capacity, thus Workeez will be a nodal app to increase access to decent job opportunities for millions of low-income, low-literacy workers, and benefit millions of people in the informal economy (especially women) throughout Nigeria and West Africa.

Nigeria reportedly has the largest informal sector in Africa, due to its massive population of 153,9 million, and decades of poor economic performance with a high unemployment rate of 12.9% and soaring poverty incidence of up to 54% (CBN-2009). Schneider (2002) estimated Nigeria’s informal sector at 57.9% of its GNP, (US$212,6 billion), while IMF reports that the informal sector accounts for approximately 65% of Nigeria's economic activities.  Developmental policies for the informal economy have a “distinctly gendered” effect since women dominate the informal sector, due to socio-cultural barriers to formal jobs.

The National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was launched in 2005 however, news reports and statistics indicate that the scheme covers below 10% of Nigerians. Therefore, affordable healthcare is non-accessible to most vulnerable people. 82% of respondents to NOIPolls 2017 poll on Nigerians' perception of health insurance revealed an alarmingly high Out-of-Pocket payments for healthcare services, which accounts for Nigeria’s low health insurance penetration. NOIpolls also showed that 78% percent are willing to make a small contribution to enable them have access to quality health service.

Workeez is a bridge/nodal app for Nigeria's millions of low-income, low-literacy informal workers who lack access to decent job opportunities, healthcare and social benefits. 

Nigeria’s unemployment rate will reach 33.5 % by 2020, (FGN)  while Nigeria ranks 152 out of 157 countries on the World Bank’s Human Capital Index. The Nigerian Demographic Health Survey (NDHS 2018) report shows parents' that lack of health insurance is denying many children access to basic healthcare. Childhood mortality in Nigeria remains high, with an estimated one million Nigerian children dying yearly. 

PriceWaterCoopers (PWC), reports that Nigeria’s informal sector of about 59.7 million people, (approximately 70%) of Nigeria’s working population is not covered by the Contributory Pension Scheme, hence coverage has to be extended to the informal sector in order to reach significant targets in Contributory Pension Scheme.

The World Bank also stated that "in wake of the COVID-19 crisis, identifying and providing social protection to those employed in the informal sector, who are not covered by any program but are vulnerable and may slip into poverty, has become more critical than ever,” hence the Workeez solution will target the 97% Nigerians (about 194 million)  who have no health insurance to access healthcare services. 

Development of Workeez App is an outcome of Dewdrop's ongoing Oxfam-Voice sponsored project with the target population in 11 project communities of Enugu State, Nigeria.

Nigeria’s informal sector also employs the largest number of citizens. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the informal sector accounts for approximately 65% of economic activities in Nigeria. In sub-Saharan Africa, the informal sector contributes about 72% to employment, excluding agriculture. 

Our solution will greatly impact the lives of these individuals as it will provide a much needed “safety net” that is grossly lacking and not provided by the government. Health and Retirement are among 2 of the biggest cost and stress factors for individuals and families. 

There are many job listing platforms and employment agencies in Nigeria, however none incorporates a social protection component that provides access to health care and retirement/pension services for informal workers. Offering a simple, effective and widely accessible solution that can address these gaping, critical issues will be beneficial to these individuals and to the entire country. 

Our solution will greatly impact the lives of the informal workers as it will provide a much needed “safety net” that is  not provided by the government. Health and Retirement are among two of the highest cost and stress factors for individuals and families. 

Development of Workeez App is an outcome of Dewdrop's ongoing Oxfam-Voice sponsored project with the target population in 11 project communities of Enugu State, Nigeria. Workeez's solution is based on studies of supporting nodal agencies who perform several functions typically carried out by an insurance company. Workeez will deploy features that encourage contributions regardless of literacy  numeracy levels  and limited internet coverage. The multi-language Workeez App will enable workers make regular contributions through their cellphones, bank accounts and “kiosks” where vendors would provide access for workers to use their Point of Sale across Africa for on-boarding services and financial transactions.

As a nodal agency, Dewdrop will partner with employers and vendors to offer decent job opportunities, provide lower costs for micro health insurance, micro pension and other social benefit schemes and delivery of services for the target group.  

This enclosed video shows how this new application to an existing technology will work. 

Our Workeez App will use the ubiquitous cellphone which has over 172 million mobile subscribers and 87% penetration rate in Nigeria to promote our services and provide the under-served informal worker with access to health insurance, a job-listing platform optional amounts for regular contributions to a savings account and a group social benefits scheme. 

Most job-seekers are using the Internet/social media to look for jobs, rather than spending their time circling ads in the newspaper. Online job-hunting can save the expenses and prevent health risks associated with pounding the pavement looking for a job. However, online job-hunting is not a common or affordable approach for informal workers, hence we seek to provide a solution for job-seekers and informal workers with the Workeez App.

Several job sites such as "fixit.ng" are available for finding informal skilled and unskilled workers in Nigeria, however they restrict their services to advertising job openings. None has developed mobile Apps for job searches that also offer additional social benefits and/or skills/welfare-enhancement programs to informal workers. 

Use of mobile phones for online banking has been successfully implemented in Nigeria and has been incorporated in the Workeez App for employers' payments to registered workers, and their contributory payments to their savings, health insurance and pension/retirement accounts. Linking a jobs platform with these benefits and excellent customer support services will attract a significant number of contributors (workers, employers and vendors) to use the Workeez App. 

NOIPolls reflects on findings from its past poll on Health conducted in August, 2017, which gauged the perception of Nigerians regarding their health insurance cover in the country. The poll revealed that the rate of Out-of-Pocket (OOP) or alternatively, Point-of-Service (POS) payments for healthcare services are alarmingly high in Nigeria, with 82 percent of respondents reporting they pay OOP. 

Workeez will provide under-served informal worker with job opportunities and access to real-time updates on their savings, health insurance and pension contributions. Workeez administration will also provide back end support such as negotiating group insurance policies that will significantly reduce the cost of individual coverage.

Workeez model of influencing gradual change is by providing useful information on health insurance including tips from experts on healthcare, financial management, life-style and skills development on a job-listing platform,that helps workers address their long-term health, well-being, income and retirement needs. . Encouraging  savings behavior will be enormously beneficial in the long term.

Listing of products and policy details on the APP in the three major Nigerian languages: Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba will enable non-literate  clients access the correct information on the app. This will help to avoid confusion and make social protection accessible.The app can also be used as a tool for upselling health insurance schemes, and to highlight other products there.  

Data gathered from unemployed youths and Community Mobilizers in Dewdrop's ongoing Oxfam-Voice sponsored project in 11 rural communities of Enugu State, Nigeria was used to develop the features of Workeez App.

Our solution includes the features for a health insurance mobile app blended with a job matching platform.  The UX and UI for the Workeez  application is clear and simple thus very easy to use.Coverage of insurance, either private or social insurance, remains very low in Nigeria at 11 percent, however in a survey by NOIpolls show that, 78% percent expressed their willingness to pay a small amount of money to enable them access service whenever they fall ill. These findings clearly highlight the low penetration of health insurance across the country and calls for intensive sensitization and mass mobilisation of the populace. 

Workeez App will address the social protection and public service delivery systems objectives at the regional level by providing the following features which can be easily adapted and replicated for informal sector workers in other countries:

Communication: The multi-language feature on the app provides non-literate clients easy access to correct information to make their informed personal choices

Social Protection - Our app addresses this by incorporating a group health care component along with retirement/pension options.

Lack of internet access - The utilization of ubiquitous (cellphone) technology such as ussd and SMS that have been used for decades and are still being used on analog phones to complete some basic banking services. This is a widely used technology that has been incorporated into the design of our app to address this issue.

Scalability - The kiosk business model harnesses the scope and reach of third party local vendors to create awareness, recruit and train new users, obtain information, and conduct financial transactions on our apps platform. This is a model that when rigorously beta tested, can be replicated across various states, nationally, regionally and beyond.

Identification - linking new users on our platform (who do not have a national ID) to National Identification Management Commission representatives who would guide/assist them in getting a national ID. The ID would grant each user access to all the features of our app, as well as access to banking services and our proposed retirement/pension services.

Workeez platform utilizes the ubiquitous (cellphone) technology such as ussd and SMS commands that have been in use in several countries for decades. It can be carried out with little or no internet service. 

The multi-language feature on the app provides users with low literacy and numeracy levels easy access to correct information to make their informed personal choices regarding job opportunities, regular savings plan, group healthcare, and retirement/pension options.

Scalability - The kiosk business model harnesses the scope and reach of third party local vendors to create awareness, recruit and train new users, obtain information, and conduct financial transactions on our apps platform. This is a model that when rigorously beta tested, can be replicated across various states, nationally, regionally and beyond.

Identification - linking new users on our platform (who do not have a national ID) to National Identification Management Commission representatives who would guide/assist them in getting a national ID. The ID would grant each user access to all the features of our app, as well as access to banking services and our proposed retirement/pension services.

Our solution is designed to be interoperable and effectively leverage existing technologies such as ussd and sms. These are all universally open telecommunication standards that our Workeez developers will incorporate into the Workeez app.

In environments with low connectivity, our solution can still be operable with feature-rich availability.

In low connectivity environments, data and user sessions will be stored and cached for when they are in an environment with improved connectivity. Even with low connectivity issues, our end-user can continue to utilize our app with the use of data connectivity independent gsm features such as ussd and sms.

To address low literacy and numeracy levels, our instructional materials along with our vendors and trainers will be integral in educating our end-users on how to use our Workeez app

Our Joblisting platform is still at design phase.

It will provide  for 5000- 10,000 people  in the first year, and 5 Million in 5 years. 

The solution supports areas with internet and no internet using USSD. Completing the technical components of the App and all necessary integrations will be the first step.

The next step, once the App has completed the Beta test, we will recruit vendors who provide mobile banking services, to provide them with monetary incentive to sign up workers on Workeez.

Enugu State, Nigeria will be the pilot state in the first year, giving us the chance to adapt the product before scaling to 36 states in Nigeria. A core team of back-end  administrative managers, call center agents and technical support teams will  be put in place to enable fluid operations and customer support.

 Within the first year the job listing platform and the addition of the social protection components will be enabled by negotiating with, health insurance and pension/retirement managers. Negotiating group insurance for subscribers on Workeez platform will mean that we will provide lower individual costs based on proximity of subscribers.  Signing MOUs with Social Protection providers will be the foundation on which the insurance coverage will be enabled.

The next 5 Years will be a replication of negotiations in each State in Nigeria, to ensure that informal workers  have access to vendors who can sign them up on the platform. Scaling to other West African Countries will be after 5 years when the success of the  App has been verified by customers surveys and financial documentation.

In Nigeria,  private health facilities are expensive, so that households typically have to borrow or sell assets to meet hospitalization costs. At the same time, insurance companies have until recently shown little interest in offering health insurance products to poor groups. 

A search for alternative mechanisms for meeting the healthcare needs of the poor in Nigeria has given rise to a variety of new health insurance initiatives. Workeez aims to  overcome the barriers to accessing Micro-health insurance, which refers to the provision of tailor-made health insurance products, typically involving low premiums and modest benefits, by public and private insurance companies to poor or disadvantaged groups.

Dewdrop's role as a "nodal agency" is particularly crucial in lowering
transaction costs, through providing ready access to
a group of potential customers, educating the masses, collecting
premiums in a flexible manner, ensuring that the benefits
actually reach the target population, among others.

Dewdrop will serve as a nodal agency to ensure that the three conditions which are essential for the success of health insurance for individuals and families on low-incomes are met. These are: 

1. provision of healthcare services of a reasonable quality; 

2. the possibility of resource mobilization from the targeted population, so that part of the cost is recovered, and 

3. the presence of an intermediate agency to overcome the informational disadvantages and high transaction costs involved in providing health insurance and other social benefits to informal workers and low-income groups. 

Thus, the Workeez App will address the key barrier of access to affordable health facilities by negotiating low group rates for the beneficiaries with the service providers. We will also partner with banks/financial institutions to offer attractive rates for fixed deposits and pension plans for workers. 

Full-time Training & Administrative staff: 12

Part-time Facilitators and logistics support staff: 11

Other workers/Volunteers: 10

Our passion for educating and improving the lives of those in the informal sector of the Nigerian workforce is what drives us. This intimate knowledge of our target demographic coupled with our deep understanding of the scope of the problem and scalability of the solution in addition to our various and comprehensive backgrounds/skills/experience in working with technical based solutions, make us well positioned to be precisely the right team that can and will deliver on this solution.

Additionally, our alliance with health insurance experts will greatly assist us in formulating a group plan that is both affordable and sustainable in further addressing the social protection needs of our local informal sector.

To make all of this fiscally feasible, strategic partnerships with our local banking sector allows us to provide much needed cost conscious banking services for this under-served  segment of our workforce.

Our technical team consists of a visionary/team lead, UX/UI Designer, App developers, and QA specialists.

The beating heart of our technical team are our App developers and UX/UI designers. They bring years of combined expertise and experience in multiple programming languages and integrated development environments (IDE) such as Java, Dart, Javascript, PHP, Python, MQ Series, Applet, Weblogic, CORBA, Sublime, Linux, Shell Scripts, Android Studio and Netbeans. They work tirelessly to ensure that the functionality and user experience of our tech based solutions fully address the needs and expectations of our target end-users.

Our team is composed of passionate, driven, solution-oriented and highly skilled members who bring an extensive breadth of expertise to bear. 

In addressing the social protection needs pertaining to pension and retirement, our already established partnerships with local pension managers will prove integral in formulating a pension scheme and drafting policies specifically designed for informal workers.

Image Brokers: Dewdrop's long-term partner, with wide network of clients and insurance organizations in Nigeria

Zenith Medicare: Health maintenance organization with nation-wide coverage/spread that offers health insurance and other medical services in Nigeria. 

Dewdrop Foundation: We  work closely with informal worker advocates and are in constant consultation with their team to  gain further critical insight into developing appropriate App's features that will address the needs of informal workers. 

Damadi Media Consulting: In addressing the technical design and building of our Workeez app, our team of in-house technology experts and external consultants are the ones responsible for technologically bringing our vision to life. Damadi  Media Consulting  provide the Visionary/Team Lead Support.

Problem

Dewdrop Institute uses an embedded business model. Workeez is embedded in the Dewdrop Institutes’  mission to provide decent jobs for millions of unemployed youths. Dewdrop Institute and the Workeez APP are focused on meeting the needs of clients in need for informal workers who have been vetted. 

Solution

Workeez was created to serve young people searching for job opportunities. The mission is to provide employment opportunities and a voluntary contribution to social protection such as health insurance and pension. 

Key Activities

Negotiating group Mirco-insurance policies and encouraging informal workers to sign up and contribute consistently, while simultaneously providing a joblisting service

Key Metrics

When over 1 Million users are registered on Workeez across 36 states in Nigeria, with a net profit significantly profitable, it will reflect well on the social impact the App has had as well as the financial sustainability of the business model. 

Value proposition

The incentive for informal workers to join Workeez is the  possibility to find jobs  and the savings, training and health insurance schemes available at a nominal fee as low as $10.

Beneficiary Relationships

Workeez serves as a nodal agency which provides  informal workers affordable  health insurance.

Revenue

Revenue models include client registration fees, bank interests from fixed deposits, and advertising from other pension managers and health insurance.

Purchasing and renewing  insurance policies will be a major source of revenue.  Making purchases via mobile apps is popular and convenient. It  can increase sales by offering quick policy purchasing. Allow Workeez subscribers to see all plans and choose one and pay for it immediately  on the application. 

Clients in search of workers who have been vetted will be required to access Workeez Subscribers only after a nominal fee has been paid. When Workeez subscribers  pay for an insurance policy,  a fraction of the payment will go to administrative cost.

At the moment Workeez is at ideation phase so it is not generating revenue.

Grants are the major source of funding for this project due to the reality that the ROI is not high for such business models focused on improving the quality of life the poor. Micro-insurance is been proved to be a major source of social protection for the poor, however without adequate investments in the technologies and infrastructure needed to educate and support the informal workers about the importance of saving as well as affordable options for assessing heath insurance. Dewdrop Institute is seeking $30,000 to develop two simultaneous mobile application platforms, Android and Apple IOS. 

Our estimated expenses for 2020 to build the app will be $34,600.

The Workeez app will be a "Hybrid" app due to the fact that it will built on 2 different platforms simultaneously, both Android and Apple IOS

App Feature Cost (APPLE IOS PLATFORM)

Authentication pages $800 

Payments $2,000 

In-app purchase $800 

Search $500 

User profile $600 

Chat $2,500 

Report Abuse $500 

Analytics $100 

Cms Admin auth $350 

Cms Admin mang $250

 Cms user management $800 

Cms Reported entity mang $400 

Geolocation $1,500 

Google map integration $1,300 

Ads $350 

Offline mode $3,500 

Data Encryption $650 

TOTAL $17,300

App Feature Cost (ANDROID PLATFORM)

Authentication pages $800
Payments $2,000
In-app purchase $800
Search $500
User profile $600
Chat $2,500
Report Abuse $500
Analytics $100
Cms Admin auth $350
Cms Admin mang $250
Cms user management $800
Cms Reported entity mang $400
Geolocation $1,500
Google map integration $1,300
Ads $350
Offline mode $3,500
Data Encryption $650
TOTAL $17,300

A search for alternative mechanisms for meeting the healthcare needs of the poor in Nigeria has given rise to a variety of new health insurance initiatives. Workeez aims to  overcome the barriers to accessing Micro-health insurance, which refers to the provision of tailor-made health insurance products, typically involving low premiums and modest benefits, by public and private insurance companies to poor or disadvantaged groups.

The first barrier is the cost of  performing the role of the "nodal agency", which  is particularly crucial in lowering transaction costs. The provision of tailor-made health insurance products for low income and the unemployed is not a lucrative business model.  The consistency of voluntary contributions from the poor is often unreliable due to lack of trust in  health insurance policies.

The failure of public health insurance and pension policies also increases public  distrust in contributing to individual policies. This often leads to an attitudinal barrier to investing in social protection schemes. 

We would like to partner with reputable Health Insurance Experts, Grant Providers, International Labor Organizations, Marketing Experts and Advocates for informal workers who can add value to the development and deployment of the Workeez App in Nigeria and other African Countries. 

Health Insurance Companies

Pension Managers

Non-Governmental Organizations

The Banking Sector