Maria-Lourdes is 42, she has 3 children and works as a cleaner. Every day she travels from her house in one of the favelas of the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro to the houses of her clients. Her work sends her children to school but is a major hassle. She is not in formal employment, and is paid "under the table" in cash. The Brazilian Real is in crisis and susceptible to inflation. And when she returns home with the cash she earned, safety is always an issue, Rio has high crime levels and the danger of being robbed is ever present.
Informal workers make our world turn
Maria Lourdes' story is fictional yet real. Rio alone has thousands of these kinds of cleaners, and across the world millions are in similar situations. These people are part of the informal sector, the unregulated underbelly of our worldwide economy. Informal employment makes up 48% of non-agricultural employment in North Africa, 51% in Latin America, 65% in Asia, and 72% in sub-Saharan Africa.
As award winning economist Hernando de Soto Polar said:
"Western society has a view of what entrepreneurs are or businessmen are, so people in the West might identify that with Wall Street, et cetera. And they’re not used to a very important insight, which we are used to in Third World countries—the majority of people in society are actually entrepreneurs, albeit illegal ones, albeit poor ones."
Like it or not, informal service workers make our world turn. Millions face the problems the fictional Maria Lourdes faces, and solving them can mean the difference between poverty and middle-class for them.
CanYa as the solution
The Australian startup CanYa provides a way out. It is an online, mobile platform on which service workers can offer their services, be paid for them and market themselves.
- The online payment system offers a secure way for service workers to conduct transactions.
- Digital currency on CanYa holds more value than unstable local currencies.
- Because transactions are digitally registered, it offers a way for service workers to formalise their business.
- Service workers find clients more easily on the online platform.
For a Brazilian cleaner, a Peruvian electrician or a Nigerian plumber, CanYa can mean all the difference in the world.
More information
CanYa Website
CanYa YouTube
CanYa WhitePaper
CanYa Twitter
CanYa Telegram
CanYa Facebook
canya2017
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