MIT Solve

Step 2

Our Solution

Efiko Freelance Marketplace

Our solution's stage of development:

Pre-Seed

Our solution:

We use internet as a tool for job creation and empowering youth/underprivileged individuals earn a sustainable living and increase their social status. We allow individuals and businesses across the continent find, hire, work with and pay freelancers in an online space designed to support freedom and security of working remotely.

Our pitch:

Efiko is an online marketplace for digital & professional services. We allow individuals and businesses across the continent looking to offset costs to find, hire, work with and pay freelance professionals in an online work-space designed to support the freedom and security of working from anywhere.

Moving the traditional gig economy online enables youth and under privileged individuals in society leverage on skills acquired to engage a thriving gig industry which for the most part remains unregulated and under connected in Africa as a whole. Enabling individuals start and build a career where they can connect with clients across Africa to deliver services and grow a portfolio of jobs completed satisfies the narrative of preparing Africa for the 4th Industrial Revolution & in particular; the potential of the ‘future jobs’ industry. Efiko plans to roll out in its 2nd release, a “Test” feature that enables Freelancers on sign up, take tests to prove proficiency level in their chosen fields of expertise AND a “Learn” feature that enables Freelancers take courses on the platform relevant to their registered field of expertise. Both these features are designed to expose freelancers to better work opportunity.

Efiko has just launched in Beta stage and is currently working to acquire market share and validate itself within the Nigerian marketplace. Because Efiko is an online service based marketplace; focusing primarily on digital work, the barrier for entry to regional African markets is lower than marketplaces focused on physical commodity. If scaled, Efiko plans to replicate its model for success from Nigerian into other Key African markets including: Ghana, Angola, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa with the aim of growing organically from these countries to other neighboring markets.

The problem:

Why skilled youth and individuals within our market are not growing successful gig careers in a thriving gig economy?

And why clients within this market don not get enough value from the economy and choose instead to move their jobs to foreign markets?

How do we address the challenges faced by clients and freelancers within the traditional gig economy to create a system where clients see enough value to trade locally and open up opportunities for skilled youth to grow consistent paying careers working online to complete short term jobs especially outside of their geographic locations?

Why our solution will solve the problem:

Efiko.co aims to improve work opportunities among individuals assumed to possess, or who can learn, skills to trade online, including youths, mothers and freelance professionals having difficulty gaining employment and aren't currently growing careers in a thriving gig economy. Also bearing in mind clients opting for foreign marketplaces but aren't getting enough value from the traditional economy.

To accomplish this, Efiko will move digital jobs within this economy online, by first embarking on a dedicated roadshow to engage freelancers, and subsequently conducting similar roadshow for client groups, on the benefits of an online gig economy.

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Step 3

Step 4

The technologies we employ:

Consumer-facing software (mobile applications, cloud services)
Digital systems (machine learning, control systems, big data)
Management & design approaches

Why our solution is unique:

Our solution introduces regulation to the offline gig industry with features:

1) review & communication: clients can vet and interview freelancers before awarding jobs. Freelancers can review clients hiring history to attain comfort before working with them

2) protection: escrow payment enables clients pay for work received and approved while freelancers work on jobs funded

3) dispute resolution: should disputes arise, users have clearly defined process to resolution

4) learning: freelancers can take tests in chosen fields to certify them as experts

5) grow career: freelancers grow their public profile by completing jobs to increase their hiring potential

Why our solution is human-centered:

efiko.co is a marketplace designed for freelancers by freelancers. Leveraging on our collective founders experience working in our gig economy, we worked with other freelancers & clients in our ideation phase to develop the solution to fit the traditional freelance process which we believe will enable our users adapt to the technology with ease. We employ agile methodology in our process and design feedback mechanisms into our solution to enable us adapt features to users needs. We aim to introduce user focus groups involving both clients & freelancers as we grow to aid the iteration of our solution.

How people will access our solution:

efiko.co is available on desktop with only core features on mobile web. Our users are not charged for posting jobs, meeting with freelancers and negotiating on jobs; Efiko charges 5% of the project budget to clients when they choose to use our workdesk with escrow payment protection to complete their gigs. This low service fee we believe will benefit our users compared to the competition at 20%. This initiative will also drive adoption of the service and capture market share enabling more users to benefit in the long term.

Technology-Readiness Level:

6-8 (Demonstration)

Our website

https://www.efiko.co

Step 5

Our organization:

For-Profit

Where we are located:

Nigeria

How we will sustain our team financially:

efiko.co has a financial model which we believe will sustain operations and slow steady growth for 1-3 years. We charge all clients 5% of the value of the jobs the execute on the platform and all users 3% of the withdrawal amount they wish to take out of their wallet back to their registered bank account. Efiko has developed financial models around premium services for freelancers and clients that will see each group of these users pay a subscription fee to give them value added services to be highly listed to clients when clients post jobs on the marketplace. Also clients can pay premium subscription fees enable them access premium features that enable them receive dedicated project management care on jobs they post from finding suitable freelancers to project completion. These added services are planned to be scaled into future releases.

The factors limiting our success:

MARKET SENSITISATION: the gig economy is still in its infancy in Africa. Market sensitisation to the benefits of an online gig economy is the biggest barrier to entry in this market. Freelancers do not grow successful careers in the current offline economy and clients do not see value to justify keeping jobs within the economy.

ACCESS TO RESOURCES: internet penetration has seen an upscale in recent years but more penetration will add significant value to the ability of efiko.co to acquire more market share as users get more used to performing tasks in everyday life online

How long we have been working on our solution: