The Golazo Project

A Hire on-Demand digital platform, integrated with training and coaching modules, designed to drive business growth and facilitate long-term job creation, by connecting employers to readily available skilled talents for short-term jobs to help in boosting of their productivity.

Youth unemployment is becoming a big challenge in many parts of the world, especially Africa.
Nearly 400,000 youths in Uganda join the job market every year many of which are graduates, and the number is expected to increase by 13 million by 2030. 70% of these youths are believed to be unemployed or underemployed; Yet Uganda has a strong entrepreneurial tradition, with over 1.8million SMEs and has been ranked as the most entrepreneurial country in the world.

Trend growth in Uganda’s economy has not been fast enough to create enough jobs with higher earnings for one of the world’s fastest growing workforces.
Research shows that about 94% of SMEs struggle to grow their operations due to lack of supporting tools and skilled personnel.
However, Uganda’s service sector which generates an annual GDP of USD18+ billions (over 50% to the nation’s GDP), is the largest economic sector in the country, and a major driver of employment, investment and foreign exchange.

The introduction of technology to compliment the traditional models in the service industry would see to a multiplication of outputs, reduced costs of production and increased speeds and efficiency for all the stakeholders.

The Golazo Project helps entrepreneurs, connect with talented young people through a realtime connection app that uses geolocation technology and push notifications to avail the most suitable candidate for the business owner's most urgent need. This helps improve the business' operations and efficiency, hence leading to improved and/or increased productivity to enable the business to grow. The Golazo Project platform has three major components.

1) Connecting small & medium sized business owners to the skilled unemployed youths, so that they can hire them on hourly rates to help in growing their businesses by providing professional services at affordable prices, their by reducing the business' costs of operation during the growth stages.

2) Training and coaching modules through casual information exchange sessions from prominent personalities, that help both the businesses owners and the young people learn in a less pressurized environment. 

3) Business and employee profiles which eliminate the requirement for CVs in the recruitment process, by creating a digital footprint of the users journey and interaction with the platform.

We provide a cost effective method and tools to lessens the burden of businesses hiring a full-time professional in the early stages of a startup business, when the budgets are so stretched

The Golazo Project is intended for over 1.8million SMEs,
and over 30million youths, especially the women in Uganda.

Research shows that despite over 40% of Uganda's population being entrepreneurs, many struggle to grow due to a lack of technical support and skilled manpower. We therefore work with these businesses to improve their productivity, facilitate growth of their profits and the ultimate expansion that will lead to added job creation.

Also, with over 2/3 young people in Uganda earning less $800 a year, many struggle to live meaningful lives, and as such, resort to petty crimes to make ends meet; especially when unable to depend on anyone for providence of their survival means.

In building our solution,we have actively engaged all stakeholders by running a pilot stage of our platform targeting the largest sector of the economy - the service sector - where we worked with 1200 end users over a period of 12months, and based on that pilot, we believe that we have a proof of concept for the viability of our product to the target market.

Due to lack of professional support for small businesses to realize profitability, many struggle to grow. This happens despite the high numbers of skilled graduates available for hiring. The businesses are unable due to the high costs involved in hiring a full-time professional, on restrictive early-stage budgets.Hence the requirement for The Golazo Project. Our hire on-demand platform allows for flexibility in the hiring process, where business owners are given a much needed opportunity to hire skilled professionals and pay only what they can afford, hence enabling small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs.

Our solution is innovative because it transforms the challenge of Uganda’s population explosion into a great opportunity to grow various businesses and the nation’s economy as a whole. Additionally, GiGs is a timely intervention into the human resources challenge being faced by many companies in the time of a global pandemic crisis – COVID19. Specifically, it will help job-insecure/laid off workers create income streams, and businesses to get back on their feet at minimum expenses that would be incurred in hiring full-time employees.

The rationale With over 1.8million SMEs on a surface area of 241,000KM2, Uganda is ranked as the most entrepreneurial country in the world. However, 94+% of these businesses struggle to grow due to a lack of technical support. On the other hand, at least 400,000 youths join the job market every year and struggle to find jobs, despite a majority being university graduates, or about to graduate. With so many businesses starting up, why should Uganda’s youth unemployment still be at over 70%? This is why we created GiGs.  By linking the SMEs and start-ups to the right talents that would help them grow their businesses, this would lead to added productivity and subsequent business growth, leading to increased job creation, and economic growth.

We use geolocation technology to map SME owners to skilled unemployed youths using smart phones and mobile internet.

Uganda has a mobile phone subscription of over 25million, 19million of which are connected to the internet.
Evidence of the ability of our solution is portrayed by the success of the Safeboda application which now has employed over 20,000 youths in a period of two years.
The UBER application's success too in our economy is evidence for the ability of our solution.

Well over 2/3 of Uganda’s youth (18 – 34) earn less than USD $800 per year. This largely because a majority of the youth are dependants with no reliable source of income.
With GiGs creating more jobs by the SMEs to absorb a percentage of the unemployed young people into gainful employment, our pay on-demand solution is therefore well poised and capable of lifting these young people and their dependents from debilitating poverty.

We actively target women to take up the created job opportunities, and work to eliminate any anticipated barriers to equal opportunities for all genders.

Anticipated barriers to equality:

· Sexual harassment: We have integrated a special emergency button into the app for young people to press for readily available assistance from a member of our staff and/or the security authorities in case they sense any danger, and a reporting process to document complaints.

· Deliberate gender-based bias: That our platforms are powered by the internet, we have effectively reduced the stigmatization and discrimination faced by disadvantaged groups, because one will not require their physical presence at the location in order to avail a job opportunity. This will givethem the chance to move past the initial stigma, and be able to prove their capacity for high quality work to the SMEs.

· Wage discrimination: Our platform will suggest wages during the time of listing the job, to range based off hours of work, experience, type of work and distance from the workplace. It will be unbiased towards any specific gender or background. Location based availing: Our mobile applications avail opportunities based on the location of the employer irrespective of gender, physical ability or background of the young person

• An estimated total population of 44million
• 400,000 youths joining the job market every year, with the working-age population expected to increase by 13 million by 2030; many of these are graduates from various universities and higher institutions of learning.
• over 1.8million SMEs

Expected results 

• Connect at least 50,000 youths to short-term jobs
• At least 20,000 new permanent jobs created by SMEs using the GiGs App.
• Transition at least 50% of the young people registered on the platform into fulltime jobs with a better pay
• Have at least 80% of the hired youths retain their jobs for a minimum of six month
• Build capacities of at least 5000 businesses and 20,000 youths with the skills trainings and coaching sessions

- Lack of sufficient funds
- Small team
- COVID19

Creating partnerships and networks.
Raising funds through bank loans
Increase our sales targets

N/A

10 members

Founded in March 2015, we have been able to build a strong team over the years;

Our diverse team of professionals boasts of a combined wealth of experience spanning over a period of 30 years. We have all come from a variety of backgrounds and proficiencies where we have built networks that can be relied upon to offer valuable contributions towards the success of this project.
Some members are experts in social engagements of the youth, others in coaching and excellent customer service delivery, and other members from a computer programming background. With this much wealth of knowledge, coupled with our commitment to see to the success of the project, we are well positioned and have the full capacity in terms of experience to deliver on the promised intervention by the project.

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Ncarriers Uganda - Client, and transport services provider

Our solution is a profit-making venture. We have a clear and detailed business model with well-defined revenue streams to ensure that the IAP funding is only used as a springboard upon which we can strengthen our core business activities and be able to sustain the project beyond the grant.

Revenue streams:

Our project is a profit-making venture. We have a clear and detailed business model with well-defined revenue streams to ensure that the IAP funding is only used as a springboard upon which we can strengthen our core business activities and be able to sustain the project beyond the grant.

Revenue streams: Freemiums

Subscription packages

Commissions Advertising

Freemiums

Subscription packages

Commissions Advertising

Increased number of sales
Scaling operations to at least 5 different countries
Diversifying our product offerings
Continued improvement of the product to ensure quality

Without the funding support, it would not be possible for us to achieve the below:

-       Scale of Impact: As a social impact venture, we need to scale up rapidly to achieve impact, and also, the very nature of the GiGs model requires numbers to work – lots of potential employees, lots of potential employers is what makes it attractive to others to subscribe. That is difficult to do on profit alone in the short period of time that we have planned. Field experts: Given the level of technical expertise needed to see to the successful implementation of the project, the upskilling of our current and newly recruited staff is vital to ensure success of the project

With the application to MIT, we hope to win some money, to support our project.

Investment Readiness & Matchmaking

Support in making us investor ready will help us in:
1. Clearly define our solution: Highlight the ‘uniqueness’ of the services we offer

2. Highlight successes so far: Let the investors know what stage we’re up to and the achievements made along the way.

3. Identify target market:

4. Identify competitors: Carryout comprehensive market research and explain who direct and indirect competitors are.

5. Explain how we generate money: Revenue models used 6. Identify funding needs: Reinforce the story told, with numbers.

Organizational Strengthening
Support to achieve the below:

-   Embrace transparency.

-   Recognize and reward valuable contributions.

-   Cultivate strong coworker relationships.

-   Embrace and inspire employee autonomy.

-   Practice flexibility.

-   Communicate purpose and passion.

-   Promote a team atmosphere. Give and solicit regular feedback.
Marketing & Distribution

-   Widening our market base

-   Create added awareness

-   Expand strategies

-   Build relationships Cultivate partnerships

Any organization to help us on the road to achieving our ultimate goal

With over 1.8million SMEs on a surface area of 241,000KM2, Uganda is ranked as the most entrepreneurial country in the world. However, 94+% of these businesses struggle to grow due to a lack of technical support. On the other hand, at least 400,000 youths join the job market every year and struggle to find jobs, despite a majority being university graduates, or about to graduate. With so many businesses starting up, why should Uganda’s youth unemployment still be at over 70%?

This is why we created GiGs. 

By linking the SMEs and start-ups to the right talents that would help them grow their businesses, this would lead to added productivity and subsequent business growth, leading to increased job creation, and economic growth.

We actively target women to take up the created job opportunities, and work to eliminate any anticipated barriers to equal opportunities for all genders.

Anticipated barriers to equality:

· Sexual harassment: We have integrated a special emergency button into the app for young people to press for readily available assistance from a member of our staff and/or the security authorities in case they sense any danger, and a reporting process to document complaints.

· Deliberate gender-based bias: That our platforms are powered by the internet, we have effectively reduced the stigmatization and discrimination faced by disadvantaged groups, because one will not require their physical presence at the location in order to avail a job opportunity. This will givethem the chance to move past the initial stigma, and be able to prove their capacity for high quality work to the SMEs.

· Wage discrimination: Our platform will suggest wages during the time of listing the job, to range based off hours of work, experience, type of work and distance from the workplace. It will be unbiased towards any specific gender or background. Location based availing: Our mobile applications avail opportunities based on the location of the employer irrespective of gender, physical ability or background of the young person

The platform allows for flexibility in the hiring process, giving entrepreneurs a chance to only what they can afford for top talents to help them grow their businesses. Once grown, these businesses then create more permanent jobs to absorb the unemployed youths. Additionally, as the youth work these short-term jobs, they can raise enough money to start up their own businesses as entrepreneurs, or invest in further education and/or better livelihoods.
Our platform is also integrated with training and coaching modules, designed to upskill and raise the capacity of working age adults to take up professional jobs.
It eliminates the use of CVs in the hiring of young people, and instead creates a digital footprint of their careers, which can be used to determine their abilities and competences for the available job(s)

Our platform is also integrated with training and coaching modules, designed to upskill and raise the capacity of both businesses and working age adults to take up professional jobs.

Well over 30million youths in Uganda (ages 18 – 34) earn less than USD $800 per year. This is largely because a majority of the youth are dependents with no reliable source of income.
With GiGs creating more jobs by the SMEs to absorb a percentage of the unemployed young people into gainful employment, our pay on-demand solution is therefore well poised and capable of lifting millions of these young people and their dependents from debilitating poverty

Social and environmental impact

-In eliminating the requirement for printed CVs and creating a digital footprint we save at least 250 trees that would have been cutdown to create sheets of paper for printing.

-Our platform being a digital platform, it significantly reduces the bias against women and people with disabilities in hiring process

-With thousands of jobs created, GiGs reduces the negative impacts that jobless youths would have on the general society; examples include: - crime rates, gender-based violence, over dependence, etc.

-The employment of the youths also brings about general growth of the nation’s economy as the purchasing power of the population is increased.