Jobzy, is a Kenyan professional recruitment and skill matching platform for informal, blue collar workers that wants to build the right tools and infrastructure to simplify talent search and recruitment in the country.
Co-founded by Matt Magera and Boru Duba, as CEO and CMO respectively, Jobzy was inspired to solve Kenya’s youth unemployment challenges.
“Finding employment is a big problem in Africa and so we felt we could deliver a meaningful solution that could tackle this very real challenge in Kenya and in Africa as well. This has been a major part of my tech journey,” Magera says adding he started out professionally as a website developer, held a few roles in some organizations then choose to focus on Jobzy.
Jobzy platform aims to link millions of Africans working in the informal sector with demand for their services to help them earn from their skills and talents. The platform links cleaners, photographers, mechanics, plumbers, barbers, tutors e.t.c. directly to their demand and receives the payments for the work done via its escrow system. The platform also allows them to save their income and get access credit, loans and financial services to grow their businesses.
According to the World Bank, 75% of the Kenyan population is aged below 35 years old and nearly 38% of the youth are unemployed or roughly 4.5 million young men and women compared to the overall national unemployment rate of 10%. With such challenges to the youth, who are mostly tech-savvy, Magera and Duba realized they could do something about job finding as their contribution to Kenya’s economy and the overall GDP.
The other vertical of Jobzy is the Talent section that helps people looking for jobs and internships find them faster online. It has a list of jobs and openings on the app and allows users to search through and apply for jobs openigs in the tech as well as other sectors. Jobzy is also focusing on the professional recruitment space plans to build tools and provide infrastructure that makes it easier to find the right talent and professionals for any job. Some of the new features the platform is working on include screening, background checks, vetting etc.
At the moment, Jobzy has 500 downloads and growing steadily and is working on a number of new features for recruiters to help with identification and verification among others. Jobzy is not the only such platform in Kenya. Juakali, a blue collar job directory and a meeting place for workers in the informal sector and construction companies, corporate empowers, home owners and later individuals has been around for sometime and recently, Fursa, an innovative app, was officially introduced to the residents of Mombasa, offering them a unique gateway to a world of diverse job opportunities, encompassing casual, blue-collar and white-collar roles.
Another platform dubbed M-WAKS which promised to connect individuals or corporate employers or SMEs to blue-collar employees looking for employment in their area or from around the country has since shut down. Recently, Eden Life, Nigeria’s home concierge services scheduling platform acquired Lynk, a Kenyan gigs marketplace in a move that shows how attractive the Kenyan blue-collar marketplace sector is becoming. Eden Life will utilise Lynk’s successful platform, which connects informal laborers with end customers through automated job matching and standardized processes.