The WASPP Organization

• This idea is committed to solving the long-lasting problem of the Informal Sector Workers in West-Africa and Africa at large, who are being left out from the various Social Protection Programs available today.
• The solution proposed is that in which my organization and team members, will engage in Enlightening and Training these exempted workers on the benefits of these Social Protection Programs. Thereafter, it will be made available for the massive number of Informal Sector Workers in West-Africa, a Platform to Realise and, Implement these beneficial Programs in their respective fields of work. 
• This proposed solution by God’s grace, can expand to other regions of Africa, as the ultimate goal of this organization will be to realise Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for these sets of workers, which will, definitely, impact the lives of the program participants positively, and potentially, foster the development of the whole of Africa. 

The problem we are trying to solve is the problem of several informal sector workers in West Africa not being able to participate in social protection programs available today. The scale of this problem is one for concern, and millions of informal workers in the region are being affected by this; especially during this COVID-19 period. Since the lockdown in many countries were imposed, the little income majority of them were able to gather has been exhausted, with their savings included.

The factors contributing to this problem as it relates my proposed solution includes that of the health insurance, insurance against work-related risks, economic and financial crisis, insecurity, as well as other vulnerability and risk factors that these workers are exposed to.

The truth is poverty is more than all these problems listed above, with   access to adequate healthcare in West Africa being one of the pressing challenges presently. In Senegal and Kenya for example, 45% of their total health expenditure is paid out as direct payments from individuals involved. These out-of-pocket payments made by majority of the informal workers can incur a catastrophic health expenditure and ultimately worsen the level of poverty in families and nations involved.

The target population comprises all informal sector workers in the region of West Africa, in which their respective businesses have been generating low income. Also, the massive number of workers who find it hard to send their children to school, feed their families, sort out bills and rents in their houses, face difficulties in payment for healthcare treatment if needed, and what a view.

The WASPP Organization helps provide a platform for these sets of workers who are moving towards the state of poverty, in that they are educated of these social protection programs and how they can benefit from them. In understanding their needs better, in the course of educative lessons, we would engage each worker in a general discussion session with the organization co-ordinators. Each person will be granted an opportunity to speak out their mind by stating their problems faced, and majorly, how we can help them coupled with the plans we have for them already. We plan to make available long-term saving accounts, health/unemployment insurance accounts for them.

The solutions prepared for these set of workers will help address most of their needs, in which the aim will be to attain SDGs for each of them. 

This Challenge requires sustainable solutions, in that informal sector workers in West Africa are safeguarded from all forms of insecurities by providing for them long-term saving accounts, health/unemployment insurance accounts as well as other educative programs, that would enable them attain at least four (4) of the SDGs as developed by the UN.

My solution aligns with this requirement in that; the WASPP Organization provides a platform where these workers can come in and benefit from these insurance and educative programs, which will lead them out of every state of poverty, launching them into their best lives yet.

This solution developed entails a process, which will engage all concerned informal sector workers in the proposed WASPP Organization. My solution developed will definitely have competitors, although it might differ from the other ideas that have been submitted. This solution developed will differ from my competitors, in that most of the other solutions proposed will most likely be tech-based, or will involve an application or software in most of the processes, and faults can be developed at any time.

Whereas, my solution engages all affected workers into the organization, by hearing them out and knowing their exact needs, thereafter educating them and providing for them a platform, that will be tech-based in the long run, in which each worker will be taught on how they can implement these social protection programs into their daily working lives. This platform will help protect them from any form of vulnerabilities they are facing these days, and help employ the beneficial insurance programs into their respective businesses.

I believe this solution is unique, because most of the other solutions that will be submitted will not give these workers opportunities to express themselves, and be educated on the benefits of these protection programs, they might just engage everyone in one place by registering them online or with an app for them to receive funds or something related to that. However, my solution gathers all workers into one organization, in which they can realise at least four of the SDGs in the long run.

This proposed solution employs a new business model. The West Africa Social Protection Programs (WASPP) Organization works in two basic forms. The first form is the intake of workers who would have registered on our website prior to these, after which the educative sessions can now take place. The second form of this solution involves a tech-based platform on our website as well, in which these social protection programs, such as health insurance, work insurance, and other beneficial protection programs, which will eradicate every form of insecurity in their daily lives, will all be made available for them to register and open their accounts for each protection program.

Furthermore, in the course of the educative sessions, we are also going to train these workers on how they can develop new ideas in their respective fields of work. This training will help them make good transactions, interact with their customers well, as well as make good amount of profit daily. This is another included benefit of my proposed solution that was not made mention of in the previous section.

Now, based on the second form of the solution, the various programs in which they can register, will be made available on the WASPP Organization website, with each program having its unique name. As said earlier, to go about all these processes, all workers registered into the organization will be trained on how to go about most of these things as well as other relevant processes and training. 

As explained in the previous sections, this proposed solution entails two forms. The second has to do with a tech-based innovation in which the registered informal sector workers in the organization can sign up their insurance accounts as well as every other beneficial program.

Once they sign up, after the first section that comprises training and education has been achieved, they can now have all these insurance accounts registered with their respective businesses. Unique names will be given to these programs, and once they do so, a lot of their vulnerabilities, insecurities, and a lot of challenges they are facing will be solved. 

Furthermore, as part of the educative sessions that will take place, the informal workers registered into the organization will learn a lot on how they can make more sales daily, and generate larger income, coupled with the protection program accounts that will be made available for each of them.

My solution is very user-friendly to be incorporated into the available social protection programs and delivery systems in West Africa. This is because the workers we're focusing on will have had a training session on how the insurance programs works, as well as the organization as a whole. Therefore, for this to be implemented in social protection programs and delivery systems in West Africa, it will be a great idea as it will be easy for users to easily understand and benefit from the whole concept.

This is one of our major focus. As we all know, informal sector workers tend to have low literacy and numeracy levels, coupled with them living in low connectivity or poor structured environments. However, it is for this reason the WASPP Organization has been programmed in such a way that these users understand their needs, and most importantly, understand what we have in store for them, as we have engaged them in vigorous training sessions as said earlier. 

Apart from the training session on the use of the programs on the website, we will also endeavour to train them on building their business skills to make more profit, as well as their communication and customer-relation skills, which serves as a bonus basically.

Now, down to the amount of people this proposed solution will be serving; currently, the WASPP Organization is not serving anyone right now, as it is just a made-up concept/idea yet to begin.

In the next one year, if this solution is approved by God's grace, we plan to serve two countries for start. The countries include Nigeria and Senegal. Within these two countries, we plan to engage and serve over 5 million workers within the first year. Forward to the next five years, we plan to have served over 50 million workers in other West African countries included.

There is a massive amount of people who are engaged in this type of business, and we would like to have served a large percentage of them within the first ten years hopefully.

This proposed organization seeks to raise funds for the project to begin. Firstly, funds are required for the building structure and necessary equipment/facilities in which the organization will be work on. Secondly, funds will be required for the payment of employees/board members/staff members. Furthermore, funds will be required for the insurance program packages we have in store for them in the organization.

In the next section, we have proposed a partnership with the AfDB, which can help us in some funds hopefully. Also, we seek other mediums of fund raising, such as grants or equity.

Based on the current economic situations and global issues, the estimated budget or expenses, for this project to kick off if possible, in 2020 is:

·         A sum of 150,000 US Dollars as of now.

Budget and expense analysis will be provided immediately, if selected.

I, Samuel Olaoluwani Adejumo, is applying to Mission Billion Challenge WURI West Africa Prize, because I believe this proposed solution can cause a lot of positive impact in the lives of Africans.

Hopefully, if this solution is considered, and it gets selected, it would help overcome a lot of barriers in my life and family as well. However, the solution being selected and its realisation will largely help develop West-Africa and Africa at large, in the sense that if these informal sector workers are free from any form of insecurities and vulnerabilities, and they get to enjoy the social protection programs, more people outside the informal sector will tend to switch to this sector, especially those who are sitting at home doing nothing, wasting their time and skill-set. 

Therefore, this proposed solution will also help solve the problem of job unavailability in Africa, as more people will engage in this kind of informal jobs. Definitely, lots of barriers and problems will be overcome!

 The WASPP Organization would like to partner with the following organizations:

·       The Africa Development Bank (AfDB): This partnership can help in the necessary funds I need for the execution of the project. 

·      The Tony Elumelu Foundation: As we know, this is a foundation set-up for engaging entrepreneurs and job seekers/workers, therefore, it will be a great partnership as workers in our organization can be a part of the empowerment programmes as well. Also, they can help us with the awareness and advertising requirement/aspect.

·     Africare: We are looking forward to partnering with this NGO because they specialize in addressing African development and policy issues, and look forward to ways in which they can partner with the people to improve the quality of living and the environment, therefore, it would be a great partnership.

Thank you and God Bless for this opportunity. I am really grateful to have been a part of this challenge.