At the Crossroads of Digitization: The ICA Africa CEO on the PCC Conference in Mombasa and Cooperatives in the Digital Labor Market

As Regional Director and CEO of ICA Africa, I have the privilege of representing the cooperative movement across our continent. Africa, often acknowledged as the world’s youngest continent, is home to all ten of the planet’s youngest countries by median age, with Niger leading at just 15.1 years. Sixty percent of Africa’s population is under 25, creating a unique opportunity to leapfrog traditional technological hurdles and embrace innovation at scale. A Google-IFC report projects Africa’s internet economy to reach $180 billion by 2025, contributing 5.2% to GDP, driven by increasing internet access, urbanization, and a thriving startup ecosystem, in alignment with the African Union’s STISA-2024 vision emphasizing science and technology for socio-economic development.

Three weeks ago, I participated in the important Digital Africa Rising conference in Mombasa, a collaboration between the Cooperative University of Kenya, the Kenyan government, and ICA Africa. It was a pleasure to meet with Prof. Scholz (PCC, The New School) there, and this connection led to continued conversations at the ICA conference in Delhi. Both events provided good opportunities to discuss how African cooperatives are navigating two significant technological frontiers: digitization and the digital labor market.

Digitization

For many African cooperatives, the first step into technology is digitization—integrating digital tools to modernize operations, enhance member communication, and improve service delivery. This has been critical in sectors like agriculture and financial services. For example, the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Cooperatives (KUSCCO) established a Shared Services Platform (SSP) to help small cooperatives offer mobile banking services. This platform enables smaller SACCOs to compete with larger ones by providing inter-lending, shared infrastructure, and digital payment options.

In Mozambique, the Esoko SMS platform, developed in partnership with CLUSA International and Save the Children, provides farmers with crucial information, including market prices, weather forecasts, and farming tips. This empowers cooperative members to make better-informed decisions and boosts agricultural productivity.

Despite these successes, digitization faces obstacles. A survey on ICT utilization in African cooperatives revealed that secondary-tier cooperatives report relatively high adoption rates of 46.15%, while primary cooperatives lag behind with rates between 13.90% and 34.77%. Challenges include limited awareness of technology’s benefits, high costs, financial constraints, insufficient training for members, and difficulty identifying suitable platforms. Bridging this gap requires targeted investments, member education, and partnerships to develop user-friendly, cost-effective solutions.

In this context, the question arises whether all technology adoption should be welcomed, or if it’s critical to adapt technology to avoid further colonialism, particularly in the form of data colonialism and perpetual dependencies on the Global North. As African cooperatives digitize, the need for a more mindful approach to technology integration becomes apparent. While digital tools can enhance operations, it’s crucial to ensure that they don’t inadvertently deepen existing power imbalances or lead to a dependency on foreign tech companies for maintenance, updates, and data control.

Open-source technology and peer production models offer a promising solution to this issue. By prioritizing platforms that are open, customizable, and community-driven, cooperatives can reduce their reliance on proprietary software from global corporations. Open-source solutions allow African cooperatives to take ownership of the tools they use, ensuring that the technology is adaptable to local needs, avoids lock-in, and promotes greater sovereignty over data. Additionally, peer production licenses can facilitate collaboration between cooperatives across different regions, enabling them to share innovations, contribute to software development, and customize technology in ways that reflect their unique needs and values. This approach not only counters the potential risks of digital colonialism but also fosters a more equitable technological ecosystem where African cooperatives can thrive independently while benefiting from collective innovation.

There is also a pressing need for African tech cooperatives, as they understand the principles and ethos of traditional cooperatives—something venture capital-funded companies often fail to grasp. By nature, tech cooperatives align with cooperative values, ensuring technology solutions prioritize community and member-driven priorities. Large tech cooperatives like Coopersystem show that this model can scale.

^{Couriers in Ghana are starting their own digital platform}

Digital Labor Markets, the Second Frontier

While digitization transforms cooperative operations, the second frontier—the digital labor market—presents untapped opportunities for African cooperatives to participate in and shape emerging gig economy sectors. At the Mombasa conference, discussions focused on how cooperatives can move beyond digitization to tackle ride-hailing, courier services, and even content moderation through cooperative ownership models. Examples are already emerging across the continent. Ghanaian couriers are experimenting with cooperative structures, while Maasai women in Tanzania are developing a platform cooperative to create credit histories and improve financial inclusion. In South Africa, fisherfolk are establishing a data cooperative to better manage their resources. There is growing interest in ride-hailing cooperatives inspired by models like The Drivers Cooperative, which allows drivers to own the app collectively, set fair rates, and share profits equitably. One particularly promising area is content moderation, a rapidly expanding sector in Africa as global tech companies outsource these roles. Organizing content moderators into cooperatives could ensure fair pay, better working conditions, and shared decision-making.

Platform cooperatives—businesses owned and governed by their members that leverage digital platforms for services—offer an alternative to extractive gig economy models. Unlike traditional platforms, which prioritize shareholder profits, platform cooperatives distribute control, decision-making, and profits among their members. At the Mombasa conference, Prof. Trebor Scholz proposed federating platform cooperatives across sectors, such as ride-hailing, courier services, or electric vehicle rentals, by sharing digital infrastructure. This approach reduces costs, fosters collaboration, and accelerates scalability. For example, a ride-hailing cooperative in Nairobi could allow drivers to collectively own and operate the platform while retaining profits within their community. Similarly, farmer cooperatives could use e-commerce platforms to bypass intermediaries and directly connect with consumers, maximizing their earnings.

However, challenges remain. Limited infrastructure, high costs for digital tools, and restrictive legal frameworks pose significant barriers. Addressing these issues through policy reforms and partnerships will be crucial to realizing the potential of platform cooperatives and adjacent solidarity enterprises in Africa. Scholz also cautioned against embracing tech development associated with Big tech companies, emphasizing the importance of cooperative principles and values.

Technology adoption is essential for African cooperatives to bridge the digital divide, enhance livelihoods, and drive inclusive economic growth. By modernizing operations, strengthening governance through digitization, and embracing digital labor markets, they unlock transformative potential. As illumined at the Mombasa and Delhi conferences, African cooperatives are uniquely positioned to leverage technology not merely to adapt, but to actively engender localized prosperity and contribute to ecological balance.

Learn more about Dr. Sifa Chiyoge, the author