[batoure]

they are doing basic programming and database work for small banks and businesses. The thing that is important that he said is...

>Add to that, a good number of African countries have been blacklisted from PayPal.

I actually tried to set some friends up doing work on odesk and elancer. It is simply not possible this part of the world(west africa, cote d'ivoire, ghana, togo, benin, nigeria) is basically cut off from international money transfers unless you are part of a high income elite that qualifies for real banking. So they could do work, but would never be able to get the money.

[jonahx]

That makes sense... I wonder if there's an opportunity there for someone who is part of that elite to act as a go-between of sorts. I could imagine they have their payments sent to a PayPal in US or UK, etc, and then the account holder wires money to someone with an actual bank account in one of the countries you listed, who dispenses the money back in cash to the workers. I doubt there would be much money in it for the middle man, but the numbers you are quoting are right then that person would be having a major impact of the lives of those programmers.

[batoure]

yeah the problem is, that's pretty much what the point of sites like elance and odesk are, is to act as a go between and limit risk. So maybe there is just a niche for someone to cater to that area.