Kevin Nyango
We are happy to introduce to you today Jobsikaz, an online job marketplace start-up from Nairobi, Kenya.
- First of all, can you introduce yourself to our readers, who you are, where you come from and what’s your background.
My name is Sophy mwale, and entrepreneur and Job market specialist based in Kenya. I have founded 2 companies over the last 5 years one in HR management and the other an online job marketplace serving SME Markets.
- What is your startup and where is it located?
My start-up is Jobsikaz.com, an online job marketplace with recruitment tools specially tailored for SME’s. Currently has a presence in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
- What is the problem you are addressing and what is your solution?
Research indicates that 80% of SME’s are not satisfied with their current recruitment approaches which often result to poor fit candidates or even no candidate at all at the end of their recruitment cycle.
The inefficient and poor quality job-job seeker matching in the SME marketplace is largely driven by:
- Inefficient recruitment methods by SME’s.
- Lack of skills and time for recruitment largely carried out by founders.
- Lack of affordable SME targeted enterprise recruitment solutions to handle especially repetitive, high-volume tasks like shortlisting.
To address the above challenges we have developed an online job marketplace powered with recruitment tools for facilitating efficient, timely, quality and affordable SME – Job Seeker Connections. The tools include:
- A ready to access CV database
- A Job Board
- Applicant tracking System
- Search and shortlist capability
- Invite candidate for Interviews
- Saving CVs for future use
- Candidate assessment
This Simplified and user friendly system has not only reduced sourcing and shortlisting time by upto 70%, but has also significantly reduced direct and indirect recruitment costs by upto 40%
- What is your target market? And the market size?
Our target market is not just the 17 Billion USD formal job market in the region of which only 9% is occupied by recruitment agencies and platforms, but we are also going after the largely overlooked informal job sector which stands at an excess of 29 Billion USD in annual size.
- How has the traction been so far on the customer side?
- 10,077 registered Users in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Zimbabwe
- 110 Registered employers, 303 Successful Recruitments,1978 Job Postings
- Annual Page views 987,258,Users 299,793
- From the investment perspective, where are you at now?
We have still been streamlining our business system and processes, and have just recently started fundraising. So no investment yet.
- What is your view about the startup scene in your countries and more regionally in Africa?
The Kenyan start-up ecosystem still remains among the best because there is always a market for almost anything. Basically an economically empowered consumer base. The middle class are not only technologically aware but they love to move with trends. The bottom of the pyramid are massive, they are voracious consumers with also a decent buying capacity.
The other thing is a booming private sector, where a lot of business is in the hands of private businesses as opposed to government and NGO’s. So decision making is fairly faster and less rigid, which is really great for start-ups.
- Can you share with us 3 other start-ups in your country, that you find interesting, either from a product perspective, vision one or their founders?
- Paul Kimani – TozzaPlus
Paul is one of the rare breed of entrepreneurs who set a business for the sake of meeting a solid market need, not for recognition through a sensational story. As such he has been able to hack it purely by working market forces.
- Calvin Jodisi – Asenti
Calvin is an impact entrepreneur. Fully dedicated to his ventures, he gets into businesses for the greater good for society and not just his profits.
Thanks again for your time and let’s catchup in a few months to follow up on your milestones and development!
