South Africa’s unemployment rate is at its highest in over a decade, with more than 6 million people now being unemployed. According to Stats South Africaâs Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the quarter ended September 2019, the working-age population increased by 149,000 or 0.4% in the third quarter of 2019 compared to the second quarter, hence the Co-founders of Jobbie app would meet on a regular basis to discuss how innovative tech solutions could solve everyday problems. âWe really wanted to find the right problem to solve and build a company around the solution to that problem. During one of our meetings in mid-2017, we were both frustrated with how difficult it was to get the right workers to do maintenance tasks at our homes -and so, Jobbie was bornâ says Eugene Coetzee.
Eugene Coetzee and Jan Vosloo have technical backgrounds but they still had to learn new skills which were outside of their comfort zones. They had to familiarize themselves with the market and competitive analysis, financial projections, marketing, pitch decks and much more. The businessmen highlighted that reaching the customer base and making sure they hear you can be very challenging in the business-to-consumer space.
The mobile app was officially launched in Cape Town in January 2018 and is driven by the job market that aims to reduce unemployment and poverty. The app is free and helps unemployed individuals to get odd jobs done by connecting you to trusted workers, such as handymen, plumbers, electricians, builders and much more. Jobbie’s short-term plan is to be available in all major South African cities and towns and the rest of Africa.
Innovative tech solutions are playing a large role in contributing to the South African National Development Plan (NDP). The app gives customers the ability to post jobs, to get quotes from workers, to review the ratings that workers received for other jobs, and to eventually appoint and pay a worker through the app once the job is completed. On the other hand, it also gives workers access to thousands of new customers and provides them with marketing support. Workers who do outstanding work and get excellent ratings are rewarded with more jobs. With regards to payments, Jobbie enables workers to accept card payments through the convivence of mobile phones. It recently passed the R3000 mark jobs posted and the 500 marks for jobs that were completed by Jobbie workers
According to Coetzee âAccelerators programmes give structure to what can be a very chaotic experience when starting a new company. It helps you to focus and provides support on the important aspects of creating a business that you might not have experience in. He notes that compared to other parts of the world, there is a relatively a low amount of risk capital available to startups in of Africa and adds that we need more people to take a chance on a country and continent.
