With unemployment rife across many African countries, an increasing number of tech-savvy entrepreneurs are taking matters into their own hands, and looking to solve the unemployment crisis with tech-based solutions which improve access to job opportunities, and ensure employers are connected with the right talent. Here Disrupt Africa introduces five of Africa’s top e-recruitment startups to keep an eye on.
Duma Works
Kenyan startup Duma Works has found its niche providing a recruitment solution for small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The startup allows jobseekers to create a profile describing their skills and location via SMS, WhatsApp and web. Depending on their package, employers are connected with the most appropriate candidates and avoid having to deal with a huge number of unsuitable applications.
Duma Works recently won the enterprise category of mobile startups pitching competition PIVOT East, held in Kenya last month.
Kama Kazi
Also a Kenyan startup, online recruitment platform Kama Kazi believes the jobs market in Kenya is about to be shaken up by the shift to online rather than physical recruitment, with the startup hoping to be at the forefront of this shift.
Kama Kazi provides an online platform linking jobseekers and employers. Jobseekers are pre-vetted by the startup to provide a reliable database of candidates for employers to consider; while jobseekers are offered training and assistance in finding the right work placement.
According to Kama Kazi, Kenyan job seekers lack ICT skills and a mentality geared towards independent work, both of which need to be urgently addressed to improve the employment sector – hence Kama Kazi’s approach of providing important skills training prior to putting jobseekers forward for specific positions.
M4Jam
South African microjobbing platform M4Jam takes big jobs from reputable companies and breaks them into smaller jobs, allowing users to complete simple tasks using their phones in exchange for cash.
The M4Jam service allows brands, NGOs or the public sector to post a number of small tasks, which are promoted by M4JAM and taken on by “jobbers” who complete them using their mobile phones. Once these micro jobs are complete, M4JAM collates and sends the finished package to the employer, with M4JAM and the jobber then getting paid.
Launched just over a year ago, in February M4Jam closed a funding round which saw Naspers and Tencent-owned WeChat Africa invest in the startup; and by May M4Jam reported 70,000 jobbers on the platform, with around 150,000 jobs having been posted so far.
Giraffe
South African startup Giraffe wants to improve access to job listings for the low and medium skilled jobs market using mobile.
Jobseekers sign up to Giraffe by sending a shortcode via SMS or visiting the Giraffe website. The platform asks a series of questions, culminating in a short digital CV.
Employers log onto the platform and submit a staffing request. Giraffe’s algorithm automatically contacts all suitable candidates via SMS, and asks if they would like to interview. It then automatically schedules interviews for those who respond affirmatively, and forwards their digital CVs to the employer.
Giraffe was recently crowned “the best startup in South Africa” at the Seedstars World competition held in Johannesburg, with the Giraffe team to represent South Africa at the global final of Seedstars World in Switzerland in 2016.
PushCV
Nigerian startup PushCV is aiming to reduce unemployment by streamlining the recruitment process. Rather than applying to individual job advertisements, job-seekers upload their CV to join the “talent pool”.
PushCV pre-screens applicants, whose profiles are then made available for employers to browse whenever they are looking to fill a position.
In February, PushCV was named one of the seven winners of Airtel Nigeria’s Catapult-a-Startup initiative, taking home NGN1 million (US$5,000) in prize money.
