WHILE MOST students see a teacher strike as a chance to miss lectures without getting told off, three students have shown that a little hard work and a clear vision can lead to a multi-million dollar industry that helps over 35,000 people find jobs.
Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi who were students at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, are the men behind the online job placement site Jobberman.
The idea came about during a teachers strike at the university back in 2009. Using their knowledge of the market, they knew that the idea had low capital requirement, with a huge market opportunity.
Since its inception the company has steadily grown, it now has offices in Ghana, Lagos and Abuja in Nigeria with Kenya soon being added to the list.
Once Kenya joins the expanding business, the company will have a stepping stone to reach out to Uganda and Tanzania as well.
Talking to the BBC, founder Adewunmi said: “It is incredibly fulfilling helping people to become economically empowered by getting job placements via Jobberman.”
The company has helped 35,000 people get jobs, and to the founders, this is the most important thing as it creates a “multiplier effect”.
Olude said: “If you put food on the table by virtue of getting a job for someone, that person also fends for a mother, or a brother and you can create a multiplier effect within that household.”
Carrying between 500 and 1,000 jobs on the site every day, the founders estimate that there are about 1,000 active users searching for a job at any given time, reported the BBC.
Five years after their start-up, Jobberman, has got a multi-million dollar valuation, employs 125 people, and is still growing.
Author: Chief Editor
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