ICREATE AFRICA's SKILLERS.NG

Bright Jaja is a 30-year old Nigerian with an innate passion to serve the African youth.  He founded iCreate Africa in 2016 to create a platform that prepares and equips the Skilled Workforce with skills of the future; in order to solve the huge problem of Unemployment and Poverty in Nigeria and Africa. He is on a mission to empower and raise the skill level of African youths to meet global labor demand by prioritizing Technical and Vocational Education and Training as a respectable and ambitious career-path. In April 2019, he was listed on Forbes Under-30 as the Face of Skills. He was also nominated for the Future Awards Africa. In January 2020, he received the SoundCity MVP Award for Innovation and Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Digital Influence. He was invited to the first German–African TVET forum in Berlin to make a presentation on iCreate’s impact on skill-development and youth-employment.

SKILLERS.NG addresses the challenge of Youth-Unemployment and Poverty in Nigeria. With 5,000+ Skilled-Professionals in our database, and the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic, we created a digital-platform and online marketplace for in-demand skills; which supports Skilled-Workers and MSMEs by connecting them to service-providers, employers and clients that require basic skills services, jobs, tasks and projects. Individuals/businesses who need skilled-service for short/long-term can post projects and access skilled professionals to execute them onsite or remotely.  Skillers.ng is a bridge that supports the informal sector, providing small businesses and daily workers access to jobs & clients; and a safe, simple and affordable environment for cooperation between skilled professionals and clients within their community and world-over. Over 75 percent of Nigerian economy operates under informal sector which includes MSMEs, artisans & freelancers. Studies have shown 160 million jobs (11% of projected 1.46 Billion service jobs worldwide) could be done remotely, barring any constraints in supply.

COVID-19 disruption is causing an unprecedented level of hardship for skilled professionals and small businesses across the country, resulting in a permanent shift in the economical structure.  

According to a recent survey by fate function and BudgeIT, 94.3% of MSMEs have been negatively affected by the pandemic. 

To transition into the post-COVID-19 era, there is a need for rapid acceleration of digitalization. Skilled workers and small businesses need to leverage technology to interact, transact, and engage their clients. Currently, over 75% of skilled workers and small businesses lack online presence and digital literacy. 

Introducing Skillers (www.skillers.ng),  a digital platform for skilled professionals and SMEs to earn and learn,  a two-sided safe, simple, and affordable online marketplace for cooperation between skilled professionals and clients within their community and across the world. Skillers helps small businesses to digitize, market, and sell their services. 

Skillers platform connects developing and developed labor markets by providing an online platform through which clients are connected with a pool of skilled professionals. The platform operates with two integrated interfaces that give skilled professionals a digital representation of their skills and products/services and allow clients to interact and schedule their services through an interactive payment system. 

Once on-boarded onto the skillers, skilled proffessionals  will increase their exposure,  transact online, and  seamlessly set customer appointments, and to grow a sustainable sales channel.

ICreate Africa’s Skillers.ng serves the unemployed/underemployed youth, artisans & skilled-professionals/MSMEs badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. In Nigeria, technical & vocational skills are much-neglected, discriminated-against and usually the reserve of school-dropouts, never-do-wells or the less-privileged. ICreate Africa is changing this narrative, by reforming lives and disrupting the Skills ecosystem. The resounding testimonials from beneficiaries have been overwhelming and far-reaching; ranging from complete perception overhaul, monumental confidence building, skills-development, business management & etiquette, enormous business opportunities & empowerment, hugely increased revenue, highly improved employability, huge brand-endorsement deals, widespread societal acceptance, remarkable societal impact & influence,  etc. ICreate has impacted 22 Skills trade across 5 sectors: Construction, Creative-Art & Fashion,   ICT, Hospitality and Automobile-Technology, and has hosted 4 Competitions in 4 Regions in Nigeria with 25,000+ Attendees, 385 Competitors, 370 Skilled-Professionals showcasing their skills, 216 Empowered with start-up funds, tools, mentorship & entrepreneurship-training, 300 Gaining direct-employment, and 2 Winners attending the 2019 World Skills Competition, Russia. The ICreate Skills Fest attracted huge media attention nationally/internationally, recording over 40 Media-Partners and over 40 Million Media-Reach; while its website attracted 110,000+ visitors in the past year. With the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, ICreate Skills-Fest innovatively birthed Skillers.ng in April 2020 to continue this impact digitally.

Skillers.ng elevates opportunities for all people, especially those who are traditionally left behind. These include the artisans and skilled-professionals in the technical and vocational skills sector who are often times unemployed, underemployed or freelancers. They belong to the micro and small enterprise informal segments of the economy and incidentally make up the most part of the economy at a whopping over 75% in Nigeria, yet least recognized; with no remedy or palliatives or any form of intervention at such a critical period when their businesses are badly hit and hugely affected by the ravaging COVID-19 pandemic.

We have tirelessly worked to effectively improve the TVET sector the past 3 years, empowering young people with skills in-demand and positioning skilled-workers for job opportunities across the country. we succeeded in changing the negative societal perception by upgrading the profile and recognition of skills professionals through branding and mainstream technology. We also created a skills ecosystem, bridging the gap between government, private sector and educational institutions; encouraging collaboration and conversations around a change in policies. These were achieved through iCreate Africa’s renowned iCreate Skills Fest, iCreate Skills Hub and iCreate Magazine.  Our ultimate goal is to address the challenge of youth unemployment and poverty in Nigeria, and build a Nigeria that has the skilled workforce to utilize its natural resources and take the lead in global discourse; with a mandate to create 5 million jobs in Nigeria in 5 years. However, with over 5,000 Skilled-Professionals presently in iCreate Africa’s database, and the unforeseen global COVID-19 pandemic, we decided to upscale iCreate's 2020 project to a digital platform and online marketplace for in-demand skills service, www.skillers.ng in April 2020; to tackle the incessant loss of livelihoods and businesses amongst Skilled-Professionals and MSMEs, in line with his mandate.

We lives in a country where the Skilled-Workers work so so hard, extremely hard, yet are very poorly remunerated and neither appreciated nor even recognized. Rather they are highly discriminated against and treated as inferior to their white-collar counterparts. I grew up with this same notion, and almost 3 decades later, nothing had changed. On the other hand, Nigeria keeps churning out hundreds of thousands of University graduates yearly, in an already overly saturated labor market with unemployment rate constantly at its peak. Consequently, poverty rate keeps sky-rocketing and eating deep across the country, with little to no apparent solution in sight! The middle-class is hastily being eroded, while the very huge gap between the Rich and the Poor keeps widening. This he considered unacceptable in a country of over 200 Million, with rich, abundant physical and human resources. Hence,  we embarked on this journey to entirely change the narrative, the mindset and the perception of the Blue-Collar jobs by re-branding the entirety of Technical & Vocational Skills, to make it more attractive, better refined and a lot more rewarding to the youth; in order to curb the growing Unemployment and Poverty in such a great nation as Nigeria.

My journey began in 2012 when I established an NGO called Redance Africa. This NGO later became a strong movement resounding towards inspiring young people in general, to develop whatever skills they have with pride and dignity.

In 2013, during the Bring Back Our Girls Movement following the abduction of the Chibok girls in North East Nigeria, I played a major role in drawing the world’s attention to Nigeria by mobilising over 6,000 children across 50 schools in the capital city of Nigeria (FCT Abuja) to dance for peace at the National Stadium. This action fuelled global conversations about the missing Chibok girls.

In 2017, I established iCreate Africa, a hub for skill excellence and development in a bid to raise the profile and recognition of skilled professionals by rebranding and projecting the value of vocational skills in the mainstream.

iCreate Africa has worked effectively in the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) sector the past 2 years, empowering young people with skills in demand and positioning skilled workers for job opportunities across the country. We succeeded in changing the negative societal perception by upgrading the profile and recognition of skills professionals through branding and mainstream technology.

Through iCreate Africa, we have created an skills ecosystem, bridging the gap between government, private sector, and educational institutions, encouraging collaboration and conversations around a change in policies. Some of our projects include the iCreate Skills Fest, iCreate Magazine, and iCreate Skills Hub.

In 2018, I embarked on what would be the most daunting task till date, which was to host the iCreate Skills Fest, a series of events within Nigeria with a goal to change the negative societal perception of skills trade by uplifting the profile and recognition of skilled professionals through skill competitions. Our goal was to host 4 competitions in 4 regions, bringing together 354 Competitors and more than 25000 attendees. This was challenging because it has never been done before and so I had to develop new systems and strategies, putting together the right team to make it a success.

I overcame this challenge by looking at previously successful competitions of this nature like the World Skills Competition, speaking to the experienced mentors and industry thought leaders, analyzing the feedback they gave us and incorporating the team’s ideas into our implementation strategy

Beyond a competition, the event has become a movement and has
attracted huge media attention both nationally and internationally.
ICreate website has attracted over 100,000 visitors; the social
media following is rapidly increasing and we also launched our own
skills magazine and online TV to further project a positive image of
vocational skills in the mainstream.

In 2013, during the Bring Back Our Girls Movement following the  abduction of the Chibok girls, I played a major role in drawing the world’s attention to Nigeria by mobilising over 6,000 children across 50 schools in the capital city of Nigeria (FCT Abuja) to dance for peace at the National Stadium.

To make this possible, I lead a team of 200 creatives who trained school children and lead various sub teams. This action fuelled global conversations about the Chibok girls. This lead to us winning the Abuja Young  Entrepreneurship Award and also the Abuja Advancement Awards for the most effective concept in the FCT as a result of that project, and this gave me an opportunity to work for the president of Nigeria in executing similar projects and shared a Tedx event stage with the FCT Minister at the time, His Excellency Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and The Emir Of Kano, His Royal Highness Sanusi  Lamido Sanusi.

Skillers.ng is highly innovative and unique for both clients and skill professionals, compared to the manual and traditional means/methods obtainable in Nigeria.

• With an easy access to a great pool of talents without location restriction, employers can get jobs done quickly; increasing productivity and income while spending less.
• A simplified hiring-process gives employers over 30% decrease in the cost of recruitment compared to using Human Resource professionals.
• A clear and well structured online management process helps employers achieve more quickly, focusing on other pressing tasks.
• Hiring on-demand talents for temporary jobs helps employers hit their production target more efficiently and effectively. 

• Skillers have access to several jobs from multiple clients not limited by location.
• Skillers.ng provides great work-life balance, job security, remuneration and recognition; thereby increasing all-round efficiency and effectiveness.

• With the ability to find clients quickly and easily, skilled professionals are able to execute from their comfort zone while earning on-the-go.
• With relatively low accepting criteria, skilled professionals have the advantage of a suitable learning curve.

Other unique features include:

1. E-Learning tool which recommends various tools and training videos to upskill users.
2. Contest - where employers post a task as a contest and winners get awarded.
   
3. Skill Test – whereby skillers need to upgrade their profile status by executing more complex tasks.
4. Reviews and Ratings - Clients can rate and give feedback to skillers upon their job-completion.
5. Gamification and Rewards - A system of badges that will increase Skillers' visibility, priority access to projects, purchase of extra features, etc.

SKILLERS.NG (www.skillers.ng) currently serves 5,000 (Five Thousand) people, and will serve over 150,000 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand) people in one year. In 5 years, it will serve up to 5,000,000 (Five Million) people.

Within the next year, our key priority is to create significant economic value and remarkable impact for skilled workers and small Businesses. This is achievable through our Skillers.ng.  Our goals and objectives are easily realizable only if the market place is populated adequately with both skilled professionals and employers. Thus, to achieve this result, we have designed an operational structure in place that will aid in creating awareness and populating the platform speedily.  Hence, our 1-year goal and projection to be achieved by June 2021 is:

1. To train and sign-up/register 100,000 Skilled Professionals and MSMEs.

2. To sign-up/register 50,000 Employers/Clients.

3. To facilitate and multiply project posting by 60%.

Furthermore, our ultimate 5-year goal and ambition is to create 5 Million Jobs in Nigeria.

There are 5 major barriers that currently exist.

1. Skills Shortage/Low capacity of skilled professionals: due to the poor educational system and lack of investment in TVET. the skills level of skilled professionals is poor and unable to meet employers demand. 

2. Digital Literacy: Most skilled professionals lack the digital skills required to leverage technology 

3.Digital Divide: unavailability of internet access in rural communities 

4.Client Behavior: Most client are use to the traditional means of engaging talents and are not comfortable with using a digital marketplace. 

5. Financial Constraint: The lack of funds to solve the above challenges.  

1. To address skills shortage, we are creating a training chain framework across the country via the Skillers platform. after identifying the best-skilled professionals through and screening and vetting system we categorize them into 3 levels. 

Premium skiller - excellent in their field and successful 

Pro Skiller - Great in their field but need a financial boost to succeed  

Rookie skiller - Still up and coming but have the passion and drive to succeed.

We will equip the Premium and Pro Skillers to train 15 people within there community every month for a fee. The Trainees will be screened and added to the Skillers platform as a Rookie. The Rookies on the platform will also be Trained monthly for an upgrade to become Pro Skiller and get a licence to train and earn.

if 1000 Premium and Pro Skillers Train 15 people each per- month that will result in 180,000 people trained within a year. This is more than the number of skilled professionals the institutions graduate in a year. 

2. To address digital literacy, we took the responsibility to create accounts for skilled professionals on the platform, once on-boarded we will conduct digital skills training via instruction videos and webinars. 

3. Digital Divide: We intend to partner with telecommunication companies to expand the reach of internet access in rural communities.

4. Addressing Client Behavior, we have simplified the user journey of the client by creating a call center for clients to request service.

5. We intend to raise funds. 

We have mostly Technical Partners and one Financial Partner at the moment. These include:

1. Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) - Financial partner to the tune of about 30% sponsorship.
2. Robert Bosch GmbH (Bosch) - Technical partner with Tools and Training support for our Building & Construction and Automobile skillers.
3. The Fashion Academy - Technical partner with Training and Mentorship support for our Creative Art and Fashion skillers.
4. Trace Africa – Media partner
5. Soundcity Television – Media partner

Technical and Vocational Skilled-Workers in Nigeria have hitherto depended on very manual and traditional methods of hiring, typically within their immediate environment, community, geographical location and social network. They are oftentimes owed, under-priced and undervalued, regardless of their value addition. iCreate Africa has long set-out to change this narrative and societal perception via its iCreate Skills Fest, ICreate Magazine and iCreate Skills Hub.

iCreate Africa's 2020 project, Skillers.ng is tackling the problems associated with the very limiting manual and traditional methods of hiring skilled-workers, which was gravely worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic; with many losing their meagre sources of income. Skilled-workers no longer need to depend on their immediate environment or social-network for survival as they are signed-unto a digital, online marketplace with clients from different parts of the country; with their payments and remuneration very deserving and well guaranteed. This will significantly reduce the huge unemployment rate, poverty, economic decline, and widening disparity/dichotomy between the rich and the poor in our communities. In addition, Skillers.ng will elevate recognition, promotion and pricing of skilled-workers & artisans, to be big players in the economy bridging the gap between the upper and lower classes in the society. Skillers.ng will grossly change the general societal perception of the skilled-workforce, and reorient majority of the populace. Technical and Vocational schools & institutions will consequently become highly desired, as the Blue-Collar jobs will become much sought-after and at par with their White-Collar counterparts. These will be achieved via advocacy, communication, partnership, organizational development and technology.

The Skillers platform will function with multiple revenue streams ranging from commission based to subscription and advertising.

● For employers it will be free to post a project, free to review bids, free to talk and review samples. However, the platform will get 3% project commissions paid by employers when a project is awarded and accepted

● For Skilled professionals  it will be free to view projects posted, free to bid on projects, free to talk to employers and provide samples of work. However, the platform will also get 10% project commissions paid by freelancers when a project is awarded and accepted

● Furthermore, the platform will have membership plans ranging from US$0.99 to US$59.95 per month, and provide additional features and benefits including increased bid limits, eligibility for preferred skilled professional and high value project bidding

For skillers.ng, we seek to raise funding in grant, this will be done by participating in various pitch sessions. hope to raise up to $140,000 to give a 6 months runway to work on: Product-development, Customer acquisition, Early Marketing efforts and hiring

Here is a list of our estimated budget in USD

1. Webdesign and Development - 14,200

 (Domain-Name Registration
(skillers.ng, skillers.com.ng), Scalable Cloud-Hosting, Backend Development, Front Development, Wallet System,Review and Rating  system, Communication System (chat,video, audio), Artificial-Intelligence Matching system, Email Verification System, Payment Gateway)

2. Mobile App Development IOS/ANDROID - 28,500

Discovery and Wireframing, App Screen Designs, IOS native development, Android native development, Back-end Programing, Database and APIs , Quality Assurance and Refinements iOS , Quality Assurance and Refinements Android, Deployment and Cloud, Restful API integration

3. Marketing and Publicity - 88,000 

Which includes Content Creation (Video production, Animation,Photography,  Graphics design, Articles and audio jingles, Online Advertising (Social Media sponsored Ad, Blogs, Emailing, Bulk sms and SEO)

4. Operational Cost for 6 months -  176,000

Personnel cost, Administration, Technology Management, Public Relation & Communication, Third Party Collaborations (Agents), Infrastructure, Training and Verification, Protective Gear support for skilled workers (Face-masks and gloves)

Total- $306,700

We are applying for funds to address the challenges and create a sustainable solution specifically for the number one barriers which is Skills Shortage/Low capacity of skilled professionals. We strongly believe in our innovative model to train about 180,000 people within a year. this is the core challenge youths are facing in Nigeria and we have the solution. with the training chain framework. young people can have access to training within their community. once trained they will be on-boarded on the skillers platform and start earning. 

We are new to the technology sector and we will need guidance to understand how to navigate through the various layers of setting up and managing a digital marketplace, this include Revenue model, Legal/Regulatory matters, Monitoring and Evaluation and sustainability.

Google ; Provide tools and facilitators for Digital Training

MTN : Provide access to internet in local communities 

Microsoft : Provide access to software for training.