It’s past 11 pm on a Sunday in Lagos. Adebayo has just wrapped a demanding three-day video shoot, juggling 47 crew members across two locations, and a client who wanted everything yesterday. The director’s chair is packed up, the trucks are loaded, and now every lighting technician, caterer, and makeup artist on set is looking at him.
They want to be paid. Now.
Adebayo has done this before. He knows the drill: envelopes of cash, counted out in a back room, handed over one at a time. He knows the lighting technician needs to get across town tonight. The caterer travelled in from out of state and needs bus fare home. He also knows that two of his team prefers mobile money, and that one of the cash envelopes is short because the ATM had a withdrawal limit.
It’s been a long day, and it will be hours before he can head home himself.
A Workforce Built For Flexibility, Stuck With Outdated Payments
This scene plays out every day across the continent, in industries far beyond film. From construction sites and event productions to tour operations and ride-hailing services, Africa’s gig economy is not just growing, it is becoming a primary source of income for millions. According to the International Labour Organisation, 85.8% of employment in Africa is informal, with a significant portion driven by short-term, project-based work, with workers often paid in cash by default.
But while the workforce has evolved, the systems that support it have not.
Payments have quietly become the weakest link in Africa’s gig economy. Businesses are scaling their access to flexible talent, but the infrastructure required to pay that talent efficiently, securely, and at scale is lagging behind. For many, cash remains the default, not because it is efficient, but because the alternatives are often fragmented, expensive, or unreliable.
Managing cash disbursements at scale is operationally heavy. For the business owner, it means moving large sums of physical currency to a location, counting it out, distributing it by hand, and keeping records in a notebook with no audit trail, proof of payment, or recourse when something goes wrong. The process does not just consume time; it limits how quickly and confidently they can scale operations
For workers, carrying cash late at night is a security concern that should not come with the job. Additionally, the knock-on effect of a digital payment that won’t clear until mid-week means the rent might be late, airtime might run out, and they might have to take on an unfavourable gig to make ends meet.
Where businesses do attempt to move away from cash disbursement, they hit a different wall: a patchwork of payment rails that are expensive to connect to, take longer to pay out, and fees can erode already tight margins. The result is a system where, despite the growth of digital finance, many businesses default back to cash because it feels simpler than navigating the alternatives.
Payouts That Work For Africa’s Gig Economy
Now imagine a different experience. Adebayo uploads a single spreadsheet with forty-seven names, each with their preference of bank account or a mobile money wallet. Forty-seven amounts. He hits “Process”.
Within minutes, phones light up across the car park. Automated notifications confirm funds received, on the exact rail each person uses. The lighting technician leaves, the caterer makes her bus, and Adebayo drives home with nothing in his pockets but his keys and a full reconciliation report waiting in his inbox.
This is what today’s gig economy demands of payout platforms.
For example, with Cellulant, businesses can disburse funds across multiple rails through Tingg Payouts, moving from fragmented, manual disbursements to a unified system that supports bulk payments and isn’t tied to bank cut-off windows.
Workers receive funds through the method that works best for them, while businesses gain visibility, traceability, and control over every transaction. And every recipient gets an automated notification the moment the funds move. No more wondering if the funds will land in time to get bills paid.
Cellulant has removed the obstacles that cap the scale at which African businesses can deploy flexible talent. Africa’s gig economy is only going to grow. The demand for flexible, project-based labour is accelerating not only in digital services but also in fields like hospitality, construction, and creative industries. The businesses that will win are the ones who can attract, deploy, and retain that talent, and the fastest way to lose a great freelancer is to make them wait for their money.
Whether it’s an instant bank transfer to a construction crew in Lagos, mobile money payouts to tour guides in Nairobi, or a bulk disbursement to an events team in Accra, Cellulant ensures every worker gets paid on time, using the method that works best for them, so that Africa can continue to grow its gig economy.
