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When Ike Okosa arrived Lagos from London to attend the Social Media Week in 2015, he probably had little idea what light bulbs would get turned on in his head. Today, he credits that event with opening his eyes to the huge potential that lay in Nigeria’s growing tech space- an army of skilled programmers and software engineers tucked away in a corner of the world. A goldmine. Thankfully, his experience in the digital business which he had garnered from outside the country helped him see that something really big could come from harnessing the undoubted talent that exists in Nigeria. A year later, he launched eWorker.

What Ike Okosa discovered at the Social Media Week was a talent base. And he knew that the pool– or crowd –was big enough and skilled enough to benefit companies across the world seeking to cut costs by outsourcing jobs to countries with less expensive labour costs. So he set up eWorker, a platform which connects African software engineers and freelancers to businesses worldwide that need the skill sets they possess. Okosa says eWorker helps these companies access “the best untapped talent in the world”. The platform was launched at this year’s edition of the Social Media Week in March.

“It makes sense. It’s a no-brainer.”

The great thing about eWorker, Okosa reckons, is that it’s a win-win for workers using its platform, and companies hiring them. People who get jobs from businesses based outside Africa tend to get paid much more than they would have if they were working for a local client. The companies also benefit, because they don’t pay as much for the job they outsource to African workers as they would if they had been done by workers in their own country.

“People have been buying into the idea because it is something that people think makes sense”, Okosa said in an interview with Ventures Africa. “It makes sense; it’s a no-brainer”.

It makes even more sense for clients from English speaking countries– such as the UK, where Okosa has spent much of his working life –because they don’t have to deal with the language barriers they encounter when they outsource jobs to places in which workers aren’t good at communicating in English.

A unique platform

eWorker doesn’t just link remote staff based in Africa to employers in other parts of the world; it also trains them. Because it is in touch with global trends in the digital economy, it is able to provide its trainees with the knowledge of what today’s companies want.

Businesses can access remote outsourcing services through the platform. eWorker’s focus is mainly on IT freelancing and outsourcing, with teams specializing in web development, mobile, digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and Search Engine Management (SEM). Its freelancing service has a unique feature- payment for jobs done by freelancers on the platform are collected by eWorker’s intermediaries after an amount has been agreed upon, and are only delivered to freelancers when jobs are completed. This allays the concern that hiring parties usually have with typical freelance service providers.

An ambitious plan

Okosa has an ambitious plan. He wants to help create a million jobs for skilled Africans. At the moment, most of the freelancers on eWorker are based in Nigeria, with a number of workers signed up from elsewhere on the continent. His dream is probably not impossible to achieve- not with companies across the world constantly trying to cut costs. Africa seems to be the next destination for outsourcing, and Okosa has latched onto the trend early on. He could be grinning really widely in the not too distant future if the wind continues to blow in the direction that it’s going at the moment.

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This article was first published on 28th November 2016 and updated on November 29th, 2016 at 10:02 pm

ikenna-nwachukwu

Ikenna Nwachukwu holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He loves to look at the world through multiple lenses- economic, political, religious and philosophical- and to write about what he observes in a witty, yet reflective style.

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