State of freelancing in Algeria: Self employed and start ups
Freelance in Algeria
The word freelance meant a mercenary in mediveal age, IPSE ( Association of independent professionals in the EU ) defines a freelancer as someone who self-report as working for themselves implying that most freelancers are independent workers without employees. Most people would agree that this defines quite well what freelance is. In Algeria, the term freelance is ambiguous and loose depending on the person who you ask, it’s generally limited to people who works in the technology field such as developers, UI/UX designers, social media managers, etc.. or creative industry such artists, copywriters, etc.. Any other field regardless if the person works for themselves or not, he is not considered as a freelancer by the majority of the people.
Growth of interest
Freelancing in Algeria has existed for a long time, services such as consultants, translators, writers or any person who worked independently and contracts with business or individuals, but in the recent years and i would add particularly in the time frame of 2015 to 2020, a surge has been seen in interest to work online. This could be explained by the fact that more and more people started to have access to the internet. In 2013, only 13% of the population had access, in 2015 the numbers goes up to 46% and in 2023 new estimates says we reached 70% of the population that has access to the internet.
Another major factor contributing to the growth of freelancing is the period of coronavirus and quarantine which made some people have time for learning new skills and changing their source of income which brings to a related factor, the high unemployment rate. In 2019, 11,9% of Algerians are unemployed, We can by extrapolating from the study of G.B. Ntogo-Saghanen et Gospel C. Essor they linked high numbers of freelancer with high unemployment rate in self employed librarians in Nigeria . Nevertheless, it’s not always true but most people who don’t have a stable job or are unsatisfied with the current one, they often resort to self employment.
In 2020, the Algerian government created a new ministry called Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises in effort to promotes new small enterprises and giving the young person a chance to have their own company. In order to accomplish this, The new start ups were funded by a newly firm called Algerian Fund Startup (ASF), it’s a state owned company and 6 state owned banks with venture capital which has a budget of 58 billion Algerian centimes giving each wilaya 1 billion Algerian centimes [1]. As of 2023, There are currently more than 5,000 start-ups in which 1,100 have gotten the label “Start-up” [2]
Challenges
The growth of freelancing in Algeria had a slow increase in its start, due to the fact that until 2022, the status was not recognized by the state before then, most people would work unregistered but that comes with financial risk and unprotected by the law from scams or when making contracts with foreign clients. For people with stable income would go in creating small firm status but this implies paying taxes such as IBS, TAP, etc … which adds unnecessary trouble for a self employed person. Last year, the state official recognizes this status but the law still seems vague and unclear to certain situations.
If you asked the main difficulty that small business or freelances have, most of them would say they can’t attract new clients or any client related problem, this can be surmised in 4 points:
Lack of trust : The realm of e-commerce, online freelancing or any related online services both employee and the client suffer from lack of trust to the other side, fear of falling to a scam, unfinished product, not receiving the appropriate or the correct product originally requested or the quality of service is not as promised or advertised.
Low pay : Talking from my experience as a mobile developer for 3 years, after developing small mobile applications for startups and for other business like delivery apps for restaurants and fast food, most of them gets intimated by the price even when dealing with high income persons or business. As the sole person in the project you can only take a limited of project at the same time, sometimes a medium sized project can take all the time just at the end to get low payed. Which is the cause of why of many developers likes to work with foreign clients because low value of the dinar therefore even taking a small pay in Euro or Dollar it’s much higher than getting payed in Dinar. The root cause of can be explained in the next 2 points.
Undervaluing the effort : The people who resort to developers, designers or hiring a professional in marketing often has no knowledge in the field hence they have no understanding of the effort of many hours put in developing, making or elaborating a business plan, complexity and the many years of experience.
High expectations : Another frustrating problem i have encountered with some client is getting high hopes and expectations and they are hard to please with the result but with paying as little as possible without mentioning all the times the client demands remaking the final product because he changes his mind or unsatisfied with it.
Despite the slow start, bad planning and all the challenges that freelancers had experienced in the recent years, most made it as a full time job and carrier path and each came up with their creative solutions to succeed in their field. Freelance in Algeria has a long and bright future.
Sources
[1](https://lentrepreneuralgerien.com/startup/item/106-comment-obtenir-les-labels-startup-projet-innovant-et-incubateur-en-algerie)
[2](https://www.aps.dz/economie/150427-start-up-plus-de-5000-start-up-recensees)
