Did You Know household chores in Africa create employment?

Everyone has that errand, chore or thing to do that he/she cant because you don’t have time, you’re too tired , you don’t have cash on you, or you just can’t be bothered. In Africa, certain chores are so time consuming. Cooking can take an extraordinary amount of time and effort, with tasks, such as pounding fufu, taking hours in a week (And a lot of energy!). (See here for a cool Fufu pounding machine!) Even washing clothes can take you away from a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

A Nigerian app Eramigo, has found an effective solution for this issue and creating employment. It is an on demand service that you can use to keep track of all your errands, to dos and tasks by letting someone else get it done for you. When you have become a member, you will have a list of Eramigos (People that will take on your particular errand) fro which you can select. All those that take on the tasks have been verified and therefore there can be trust from the beginning. The platform basically gives you an unlimited number of in the Yoruba language omo odo (english meaning is house help).

Once you post an errand on Eramigo you pay online, if you can’t get anyone to accept your errand the amount you paid for the errand would be reimbursed to you. The posted errand is seen by our registered Eramigos and once accepted you get an email directing you to your dashboard (on the website) to view all the Eramigos that have accepted to do your errand. The next step is for you to then confirm any of the Eramigos on the list. Once that is done he/she would immediately start the errand and his/her contact details is available for you to see so you can are able to keep track of progress.

Once the task is completed the Eramigo lets you know so you can confirm that the errand has been completed via your dashboard and you can rate and drop a review on the work done by the Eramigo.

You can post as many errands as you like, let our Eramigos do it ALL for you, for example
1. Buying food from your favourite restaurant or buka
2. Coming to your house to cook for you
3. Washing your car
4. Going to market to buy food stuffs for you
5. Going to receive a package for you.
6. Come clean up your house for you.

The list is endless it all depends on you!

Note from Inventive Africa

With unemployment in Africa an issue, this tool could really make a difference. Odd jobs are always needed. The lack of efficiency in the transport networks, and even for tasks such as cooking and washing clothes, takes so much time away from people. With other people that need employment taking on such tasks, it is far easier for people to utilise their time better. Either using it in a more productive way, or for much needed leisure time.

We thank Ifeoluwa Popoola (@ifepopson) for supporting us with a blog about Eramigo and how it can create employment and create time. If you want to sign up to the service, please got to http://eramigo.com/core/register and follow them on Twitter – @eramigo

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to be a guest blogger. If you have any comments Tweet us at @InventiveAfrica and please also share the blog on Twitter and Facebook.