A Nigerian online connection hub, Workjeje, has revealed how it is connecting individuals and corporate bodies to quality service providers in their vicinity, while catering to urban dwellers that prioritise quality and convenience in the services they seek.

The startup which was founded in 2021 by the trio of Fortune Nwankwo, Collins Onyebuchi and Ejike Anthony, who were students at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, has evolved into one of the most sought after hub in major cities in the country.

According to Nwankwo, Workjeje, unlike other competitors in the Nigerian market, focuses on quantity of artisans with a strong focus on quality.

“It was really hard to get service providers, let alone reliable ones. They were so unserious, they’d tell you they would come in the afternoon and show up four days later, and worst of all might deliver mediocre services,” Nwankwo said in an interview.

“Collins called me one day into his house to share his proposed solution to me, so I called my friend Wisdom – who is a programmer – to build it, and that was how Workjeje started.

“We had customers asking if the artisans were pre-vetted, which of course is a pain point for them, especially for women who would love to feel safe when a stranger is in their home.

“We pre-vet our artisans by onboarding them ourselves, and still monitor their contracts and ratings to maintain optimum quality.

“Customer feedback has been really important to us. At the test phase, some customers believed our vetting process was not very thorough, and some artisans did not look the part.

“We listened, we churned a lot of unserious artisans, we made sure we vetted the artisans ourselves, and we prioritised service companies because they have more to lose,” he added.

Workjeje is currently operating in Abuja and Enugu as test markets, and is taking its growth plan seriously and slowly, he stated.

“We were funded twice by friends – first at the building stage and the second at the marketing phase.

“Getting 10 successful transactions was a major booster for us even though we were still in the testing phase. It showed us people actually were ready to pay for the convenience we provide. Right now we have processed over 70 transactions.”

Recently, Workjeje completed a new feature that its artisans had been asking for – an escrow service, primarily designed for delivery services to protect themselves against unpaid bills.

On how the platform makes money for survival, Nwankwo said:

“The startup collects between five and 10 per cent from its artisans as fees, depending on its agreement with them, Workjeje also plans to incorporate advertisements on its platform in the near future.

“We plan on expanding to major states and cities across Nigeria, and in time Africa to limit the macro influence on our business.”

Dubai-based cybersecurity company, CyberKnight, has expanded its business into Africa by opening an office in Egypt.

CyberKnight, a cybersecurity advisory and value-added-distributor (VAD), which has its international headquarters in Dubai with a strong presence across the Middle East, announced its expansion into Africa on Friday with the appointment of Naoufal Mzali as the Regional Sales Director for the continent to spearhead its business development efforts on the continent.

As the newly appointed Regional Sales Director for Levant, Egypt & Africa, Mzali will lead the charge in strengthening CyberKnight’s presence in the territory and fostering growth in the African cybersecurity market, the company said in a statement.

“With over 17 years of experience in technology and cybersecurity, his strong engineering background, coupled with a successful track record in sales, makes Naoufal an asset to the CyberKnight team.”

A statement signed by Mzali to welcome CyberKnight into Africa said:

“We are excited to enter this new chapter of growth with CyberKnight’s on-the-ground expansion into Africa.

“Since the company’s inception, we have been doing business opportunistically in multiple African countries from our HQ in Dubai.

“This underscores our commitment to delivering best-of-breed cybersecurity expertise to enterprise and government customers, as well as strategic partners across Africa.

“Moving forward, we will be building teams across the continent, starting with North Africa.”