Mozambique: Casinos pay four million euros in taxes in nine months
The Biscate app, created by the Mozambican startup, UX Information Technologies, will connect workers in the informal sector to customers through USSD and Web technologies. Blue-collar workers such as plumbers, electricians and carpenters will be able to register on an online platform using a basic mobile phone, a platform to which customers will resort to request their services.
During the pilot phase, now underway, over 3,000 workers had registered from across the country by the end of August. The official launch will take place in the coming months, in partnership with Vodacom, one of the country’s main mobile operators.
Frederico Silva, UX’s co-founder, considers that the application “will have a transformative role in Mozambique, judging by the number of professionals operating in the informal sector and the difficulties in finding opportunities.”
With Biscate, workers create profiles (with name, trade, location, level of experience, and education) using USSD technology. The profiles are sent to a database and are made accessible via Web and App to customers who, after the completion of the service, evaluate the performance of the workers.
“It is a method that, on the one hand, boosts opportunities for the informal sector, but does not neglect meritocracy, as workers with the best ratings will probably get more opportunities,” says Frederico Silva.
Biscate has already been a winner solution in various competitions: the first one organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in Mozambique and two pitch competitions for startups in the United States, in 2014. Currently, Biscate is the recipient of a grant by the USA Development Foundation, under the Young African Leaders Initiative, for the implementation of the pilot phase.
The level of unemployment and informality in the economy are some of the most visible challenges in the country, stressing the importance of innovative platforms to address these problems, as is Biscate.
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