The freelance industry has seen a large influx of African freelancers at the top of their game. Remote working is no longer restricted to indigenous markets; a designer from Lagos can work for a Berlin company, and a Nairobi writer can write for a client in New York. This is the real advantage of freelancing. But let’s be real: for the African freelancer, this newfound job opportunity comes with a hidden barrier of freelance rates. 

You’re constantly caught between two realities: the cost of living in your city (which might be lower than London) and the market value of your skill (which is absolutely worth the same as a London-based professional’s).

Too often, African freelancers set freelance rates in Africa through fear, rather than money. They fear losing the work to a Westerner or someone who bids ridiculously low. The result? They underprice their true value, creating a race to the bottom that benefits no one but the client.

The solution is not to toil for pennies. It is simple to understand your actual value; set your freelance rates based on facts, and communicate your value with firm confidence. Don’t quote your freelance rates on domestic prices; start quoting on global value. You deserve to be paid what you are worth to establish a career, invest in learning, upskill your skills, and become financially independent.

This article aims to show you how to price freelance services effectively. This comes after you overcome the fear of losing the client and focus on the assurance of getting paid what you’re worth. 

Break Free from Local Freelance Rates Limitations 

The largest single mistake that African freelancers commit is basing their rate on their local cost of living. True, your rent in Kampala might be lower than the rent in Toronto. However, your rate is not to be based on what you pay for living; it is to be based on the value you deliver to the client. This is because you are not less than the developer in the UK or less skilled than the designer in Amsterdam. 

When a client is hiring you to recreate their website, they’re not hiring you by the hour; they’re hiring you for a solution that will increase their sales, improve their image, and solve their business problem. 

To set a proper freelance rate, you must figure out what the industry rate is for your specific skill, more so within the client’s country. Before you can quote safely at a high rate, you must determine the absolute minimum you will accept. This is your Minimum Viable Rate (MVR), and it must include more than the bare minimum monthly bills.

Your MVR is calculated by determining your annual expenses and then adding on the true cost of freelancing.

The Three Modes for Setting Your Freelance Rates

It matters that you understand your lowest-level freelance rate and the modes of setting your freelance rates.

1. The Hourly Rate (For Small, Short-Term Projects): This mode of freelance rate suits maintenance, short consultations, or projects that don’t have a defined scope.
2. The Project-Based Rate (The Preferred Model): This is the most strategic approach since it prices off value, not time. It removes the client’s ability to compare your hourly rate with their local minimum wage.
3. The Retainer Rate (For Reliable Income): This is perfect for continuous streams of work (e.g., product management, repetitive content creation). It provides you with financial security and gives the client first priority on your services. There should be a fixed rate you place on delivering a blog post or designing a website. 

Communicating Your Value and Negotiating

It’s only half the battle to set the rate; the other half is to defend it. When you set freelance rates in Africa for an international client, you must also become an expert in assertive communication.

Price your target rate up front. If the client does negotiate, you can be willing to negotiate downwards, not sacrificing too much and putting yourself at a disadvantage. Even when a client might casually demand why your rate is set that way when you’re based in Africa, you must be able to defend that your location doesn’t mean they’ll get a lesser job quality.  

One of the ways to stand your ground is by highlighting your experience, results, and specialisation; you take attention away from where you’re from and place it on what you can do. 

Always quote your freelance rates in the currency of where your client is located, typically in USD, EUR, or GBP, and many more. This helps to prevent financial confusion, protect you from devaluation, and let the client reason in his currency. 

Conclusion

When you set freelance rates in Africa, your success is not where you are based; it’s on the quality of work you deliver and the confidence with which you sell yourself. This is where personal branding in freelancing is something to try out. 
Stop price-competing and pricing yourself down. Your time, talent, and energy are worth paying at the rate they’re valued around the world. Go charge your price, claim your value, and build the successful freelance career you deserve. You can check out how other freelancers fix their prices by joining our freelance community.