Emeka is 27 years old. He has a degree in Business Administration from a federal university in Ogun State. He graduated two years ago and has sent out more job applications than he can count. Today, he earns his living on a motorbike, ferrying food orders across Lagos for one of the country’s growing delivery platforms.
He is not complaining. Not exactly.
“It’s better than sitting at home,” he says. “At least I’m doing something.”
But ask Emeka what happens if he has an accident. Or what he does when the platform changes its commission structure overnight and his earnings drop without warning. Ask him who he calls when a customer falsely reports a failed delivery, and his account is flagged. Ask him if he has health insurance, a pension plan, or a written contract with the company whose logo is stamped across his jacket.
The answers, in each case, are the same: nothing, no one, and no.
A Booming Economy With a Hidden Underside
Nigeria’s on-demand economy is growing fast. The online food and delivery sector alone was valued at approximately $0.92 billion in 2024, with projections pointing toward $2.27 billion by 2033. Ride-hailing and package delivery platforms have become fixtures of urban life in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and beyond. For consumers, the convenience is real. For the young men, and they are overwhelmingly young men, powering these platforms on motorbikes and bicycles through traffic, heat, and rain, the picture is more complicated.
Nigeria’s youth labour market exclusion remains high, with many young Nigerians concentrated in informal and insecure work. Against that backdrop, it is not hard to understand why tens of thousands of young Nigerians have turned to platform work. It is accessible, it is immediate, and it requires no formal hiring process. In a labour market that has failed young people in multiple ways, these platforms offer something rare: a day’s work for a day’s pay.
But there is a structural problem embedded in that arrangement, and it is one that very few people are talking about loudly enough.
Independent Contractors, Dependent Lives
Under Nigeria’s existing Labour Act, gig work operates in a regulatory grey area, with most platform workers falling outside formal labour protections. In practice, this means they are excluded from the protections that the law extends to other workers, protections that include minimum wage guarantees, pension contributions, health and safety coverage, and legal recourse for unfair treatment.
The platform sets the terms. The platform adjusts the rates. The platform can deactivate an account. And the rider, legally speaking, is on his own.
This is not a new concern globally. Countries like Spain and Chile have already passed legislation classifying gig workers as employees of their platforms, entitling them to greater social protections and benefits. The European Union requires all member states to implement the Platform Work Directive by the end of 2026. There is a growing global consensus that the flexibility these platforms offer workers should not come at the cost of their basic rights and dignity.
Nigeria is having this conversation too, but slowly, and mostly inside government corridors and academic circles, rather than in the public square where it belongs.
A Legislative Moment We Cannot Afford to Miss
Current discussions around amending Nigeria’s Labour Act include proposals to introduce clearer protections for non-standard workers, including gig and contract workers. This is not a closed door. It is an open one, and civil society needs to walk through it.
At NGYouthSDGs, we believe this moment calls for urgent and coordinated attention. Our work through the Beyond Awareness national research study, which engaged over 2,000 young Nigerians across all 36 states on workplace rights, has shown us consistently that young workers are among the least informed about their rights and the least protected when those rights are violated. Platform workers are an extreme version of that reality. They are visible everywhere and invisible in policy.
We are also mindful that safety is not an abstract concern. Globally, 1 in 3 gig workers report fearing theft or physical assault while working. In Nigeria’s security environment, that figure likely understates the reality. Delivery riders face risks that their platforms do not adequately account for, and which the state has not yet stepped in to address.
What We Are Calling For
This is not a call to shut down the platforms. They provide livelihoods where formal employment has failed, and their role in Nigeria’s economy will only grow. But growth cannot be an excuse for exploitation, and flexibility cannot be code for abandonment.
We are calling for:
- Recognition. Gig workers must be recognised in law as a category of worker deserving of protection, not trapped in a legal grey zone that serves the platforms and disadvantages the workers.
- Representation. Young platform workers need organised voice. Civil society, youth organisations, and labour bodies must build the infrastructure for that representation, not wait for it to appear on its own.
- Research. We need granular, Nigeria-specific data on how platform workers are actually living, their earnings, their risks, their aspirations, and their grievances. Policy that is not grounded in evidence will miss the mark.
- Accountability. The platforms operating in Nigeria must be held to standards, on transparency of pay structures, on worker safety, on grievance mechanisms. Voluntary commitments are a starting point, not an endpoint.
The Rider Is Waiting
Emeka will be back on his motorbike tomorrow morning. So will thousands of young Nigerians like him, navigating Lagos traffic with someone’s jollof rice balanced in an insulated bag, no contract in their pocket, no union to call, no safety net beneath them.
They are not asking for charity. They are asking for fairness. And that is a demand that a country serious about its youth, its development, and its future cannot afford to keep ignoring.
At NGYouthSDGs, we are committed to tracking this issue, through research, advocacy, and coalition-building, as part of our broader mission to ensure that young Nigerians do not just have access to work, but access to decent work.
The conversation is just starting. We invite youth organisations, labour advocates, researchers, and policymakers to join it.
To engage with us on this issue, reach out via info@nigerianyouthsdgs.org.
