Worknasi is a new Tanzanian online platform connecting businesses and startups in the country to awesome office space, co-working spaces and meeting rooms in today’s sharing economy.
The platform, an Airbnb for offices wants to connect Tanzania’s startups, businesses and freelancers to great office spaces within their communities as well as provide a platform for office owners to list their office space and meeting rooms and earn money from the previously empty and underutilized spaces.
Some of the packages available at the moment include single desks, shared desks in open spaces, rooms and full offices. The startup also has meeting rooms for those who need them on-demand or per month basis as the startup moves to solve the office problem in East Africa’s third largest economy.
Founded by Edgar B.Mwampinge, a Tanzanian law graduate and founder of Spid Express an errands service provider, Worknasi is coined from Work and Nasi which is Swahili for with us therefore mean work with us to help reduce the high rent costs entrepreneurs face during their early startup lives. Those who find offices fail to furnish them due to high costs and lack of time to do so.
“We have found that lots of businesses with rented office spaces have adequate spaces left or available openly and in no properly or adequate use and asked ourselves why don’t they share this open spaces to other businesses?,” the firm writes on its website. “By renting this spaces to other businesses they will pay only half the cost of a full office and the space owner will make some cash and everybody goes home happy.”
The concept of an online platform for listing and renting shared office spaces, co-working office spaces is not entirely new in Africa but none of such platforms was independent from the tech hubs that sold out the spaces, Worknasi therefore stands out as it lets anyone else let out their offices and spare rooms for extra cash as most offices are not always occupied. The only burning question is privacy and loss of trade secrets unlike in homes where Airbnb guests rarely mix and access all quarters of the home. Airbnb also works on a short lease model offices however, can’t be that nomadic.
The firm is raising money to hire a strong team, do its homework well and get the word out about its services. Its business model is commission based after handling all the rent collection on behalf of the host.
