Skill, payment issues hamstring freelancing sector

Bangladesh’s highly potential freelancing sector has hit a snag as lack of training and proper skill coupled with payment issues are hindering the industry from thriving.

Freelancers say existing issues make it difficult to get a foothold in the global market, estimated by Upwork to be around $4 trillion.

The ICT Division puts the number of freelancers in Bangladesh at 6,50,000 and estimates the sector to be worth nearly $1 billion. Mahfuzur Rahman, general secretary of Bangladesh Freelancers Development Society (BFDS), said there are 1,50,000-2,00,000 professional freelancers in the country.

Freelancers earned $100 million in 2018 and the figure more than doubled next year to $220 million. Last year, the income shot up to $500 million, Mahfuzur claimed, saying that the actual figure is much higher.

Freelancing started just a decade ago in Bangladesh. But even now, freelancing is not considered to be a proper job.

Kamruzzaman Sishir, a civil engineer and interior designer working as a freelance graphics designer for seven years, said that freelancing as a profession has a huge potential in Bangladesh. “Before venturing into this sector, one should acquire necessary skills,” he told The Business Post.

Veterans in the field say lack of expertise, poor communication and presentation skills prevent newcomers from tasting success.

“It becomes very challenging if you are not passionate about your work,” said Minhajul Islam Dinar, a Qawmi madrasa student freelancing for graphics design and art. He suggested focusing on specific areas of interest for newcomers.

Work hours, income flexible

The lure of earning foreign currency while working from the comfort of one’s home is what attracts most people to this sector.

“I wanted to be self-employed and work whenever I want. That is what attracted me to freelancing,” said Rokeybur Rahman, specialising in web designing and web development. “Freedom in this field is unparalleled and the payment is handsome.”

Freelancer Monowar Zahid, who specialises in 2D and 3D animation, echoed Rekeybur.

The income depends on one’s skills and portfolio. A moderately skilled freelancer can earn something between $700 and $2,500 per month on an average.

According to the Online Labour Index by the Oxford Online Institute, top freelancing jobs in Bangladesh are in creative and multimedia, software development and technology, and clerical and data entry sectors.

“There is a misconception that all freelancers earn several lakhs of taka every month,” said Angshuman Roy, a freelancing architect, interior designer and 3D visualiser who has been a freelancer for two years.

“It is true that there are some, actually very few, who earn huge sums of money from freelancing. But that too comes with a lot of hard work, dedication and long irregular working hours,” he said.

“A freelancer needs to prove his worth by adding credentials to get high-paying projects. But it takes at least six to seven years for most freelancers to reach that stage.”

For newcomers, Zahid suggests being patient at the beginning of the career and not to be swallowed up by frustration when there’s hardly any work.

Payment issue

But the absence of an easier payment system has made it hard to avoid online marketplaces and work directly for clients for high-paying projects.

Freelancers say it is vital for them to work directly for the clients as the marketplace takes a good share from their payments.

“Almost every freelancer wants to work with clients personally outside the market. The marketplace takes a good share out of our payments. But working outside is not possible as PayPal is unavailable in Bangladesh,” said Zahid.

Angshuman said that for Bangladeshi freelancers, the key issue is the complexity regarding receiving payments. “There are some options but they aren’t user-friendly,” he said, noting that they are missing big projects in the absence of easier payment systems.

BFDS’ Mahfuzur explained that freelancer.com charges a maximum of 20 per cent, Fiverr.com 20 per cent, upwork.com 20 per cent on $1-$500 and 10 per cent on $500.01 to $10,000. Payoneer.com charges a maximum of 2 per cent for money transfer to a local bank.

PayPal’s transaction fee is around 3 per cent. freelancer.com and upwork.com can make direct transfer to a Bangladeshi bank but it is far costlier and time consuming. The local bank would charge 12 to 15 per cent as transaction fee and it takes around a month to withdraw money, Mahfuzur said.

For example, a freelancer gets a $100 project from a US party through freelancer.com. While making the payment, the marketplace keeps up to $20 as service charge and transfers the rest ($80) through Payoneer.com. The latter charges 2 per cent service fee on the amount.

The rest is transferred to the freelancer’s bank account in Bangladesh. When the freelancer withdraws the money, she/he gets around Tk 79-80 per dollar if the exchange rate is around Tk 85.

But if PayPal operates in Bangladesh and the $100 is sent through it, then the freelancer receives $97. The amount can be encashed from banks as per the exchange rate.

“Available payment systems are not as safe and hassle-free as PayPal. A payment system like PayPal is a must for Bangladesh-based freelancers,” Mahfuzur said.

But an industry insider said PayPal would not be available in Bangladesh anytime soon.

‘Nothing special’

Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) President Syed Almas Kabir told The Business Post that they introduced ‘Shadhin Freelancer Prepaid Card’ on February 19, 2018, in association with Bank Asia and MasterCard.

In 2017, the government authorised the operations of Xoom, a PayPal cross-border payment service which allows only inward remittance, to facilitate freelancers.

“Xoom doesn’t have any special benefit for freelancers compared to money transfer services such as Western Union or moneygram. Xoom is by no means a replacement for PayPal,” Mahfuzur said.

Last November, the government launched freelancers.gov.bd and its mobile app to facilitate registration and payment services of freelancers in the country through electronic identity cards, he said.

The website will offer tutorials and mentoring for newbies.

Upskilling must for survival

Most of the freelancers said their competitors from other South Asian countries were much ahead of Bangladesh thanks to investment in training and development and access to easy online payment systems.

“In many cases, our lack of skills and competencies has become our own challenge,” said freelancer Yasin Arafat.

Dr Mohammed Shafiul Alam Khan, director of the Institute of Information Technology at Dhaka University, suggested conducting a survey to find out where the country’s freelancers are performing best and what areas can become more lucrative for them in the future.

“Most of them (freelancers) are self-taught, low skilled and work individually. Lucrative and technical areas like software and web development needs technical knowledge and teamwork, which requires training and practice,” he told The Business Post.

He suggested the government to run programmes to make potential future freelancers skilled in particular areas.

BFDS’ Mahfuzur noted that most of the people take up freelancing as a last resort. “We need to make this sector lucrative for the young people and make it as appealing as traditional office jobs.”

BASIS President Kabir said Bangladesh is doing well in the freelancing world. “But we won’t be able to retain our position, let alone thrive, if we don’t upgrade our skills. We need more expertise on coding, analytical skills and nurture new techniques to stay on top our game,” he said.

Mahfuzur said that the local freelancing sector has the potential to earn as much as $5 billion within a few years.

The incumbent government took initiatives, such as offering IT courses, under the National Skills Development Policy to develop the country’s outsourcing and freelancing sector.

According to Skills for Employment Investment Programme, 29,520 people received certification on IT-related training under BASIS. At the same time, over 50,000 IT freelancers were created through the Learning and Earning Development Project initiated by the ICT Division. Post, Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar said upskilling is must to survive in the marketplaces of Fourth Industrial Revolution and the digital era.

He warned that the low-skill jobs that many Bangladeshi freelancers are doing can be taken over by artificial intelligence or software.

He said there are talks about initiatives for upskilling and revamping the education system “but I don’t see any effective step from any quarter”.

“We need to restructure our national education system to make our young generation more efficient for the upcoming digital era. Skills like coding and programming should be taught from the primary education stage,” he told The Business Post.