We have now (majorly) transitioned from the job economy, to what we love to refer to as a gig economy. We work in non-jobs now – mostly remote jobs. According to the World Bank report, the gig economy accounts for up to 12 percent of the global labor market. We are happily (hopefully) gigged.
According to the Work without Borders publication, In Sub-Saharan Africa, job postings on the largest digital platform grew by 130 percent. At the same time, the growth rate in North America was just 14 percent. Africa is demanding the remote job opportunities now more than ever.
The promise of working from anywhere has become every company’s catchphrase and every job seeker’s hope. However, upon closer inspection, and truthfully, after thousands of failed applications (personal experience), one must wonder; is anywhere in these remote jobs truly “anywhere”?
The term “anywhere” in the context of many remote jobs carries with it an unspoken caveat, a sort of reminder that not all “anywheres” are created equal. Yes, we are talking about being in Africa and trying your hand at remote jobs. It is a headache. Despite the global embrace of remote work, some (many) job boards, still have geographical biases, many being based against Africa-based remote workers. You will be excited to apply for that job that you more than qualify for, pays in dollars and Euros, only to scroll down to Remote – US, UK and Canada only. Sigh.
Here is a list of 6 job boards that hire remote workers from Africa, that will pay you in USD;
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Working Nomads:
This tops the list as my favorite job board, with an entire category for “Africa. Filter your job search by location, block out Africa, and find jobs accepting workers from the region.The jobs on Working Nomads are diverse, ranging from developers, to content writers and marketing roles.
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Remote Ok:
Programming, design, Dev Ops, management and finance, products, customer support, and sales and marketing and other jobs are listed almost hourly. With every refresh, you are guaranteed to find a new job posting. You can also narrow down your search by filtering according to countries, finding jobs that accept remote workers from your country.
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We Work Remotely:
While WWR does hire in Africa, finding jobs requires a bit more effort as there’s no category feature to filter by location, and the Africa-accepting jobs are not as many. However, the upside of WWR is that it has a section on guiding you to remote work, and a list of top companies hiring remotely at any time. A very helpful feature to get you started on what companies you can look into.
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Remote Africa
It’s in the name. Remote Africa is Africa’s remote work community, connecting African talent to overseas remote opportunities. The job listings on Remote Africa are however far and wide.
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Internally:
Dubbed Africa’s private job board, Internally majors in talent acquisition for African startups, offering outsourced solution for organizations across customer support, customer service, sales, marketing, HR, product and administrative assistance.
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Remotive:
Remotive offers one of the widest selections of job listings for Africans to apply to, most of which are indicated as ‘worldwide.’ At this point, It’s crucial to note that if a job is listed under ‘worldwide’ or ‘anywhere’ in the world, it hires in all the different countries we are in.
Conclusion
In essence, the promise of working from anywhere challenges us to redefine the term. It’s not just about the physical location,but dealing with the geographical constraints of the digital economy—ironically, why do geographical constraints exist in a digital world? The true essence of remote work should lie in an “anywhere” that knows no borders.
