Ogugua Belonwu is the founder of MyJobMag, a technology-driven career company with a mission to connect candidates to great employers. In this interview with BUNMI BAILEY, he talks about the inspiration behind the company, how it is helping to bridge the unemployment gap in Nigeria, among other issues. Excerpts:
Could you please tell us about your company?
MyJobMag is a technology-driven career company with a mission to connect great candidates to great employers. The idea was birthed in 2010 with the launch of myjobmag.com in Nigeria. Subsequently, MyJobMag replicated its success in Nigeria to Kenya and Ghana. Currently, over one million users improve their lives and businesses with our offerings monthly. Beyond providing job search tools, recruitment and advertising services, the company has a deep focus in people and business improvement. It is an agile, innovative and stakeholder-centric organisation that believes that through effective, efficient recruitment and deployment of smart, ethical and competent talent; organisations, Nigeria and Africa; could win.
What inspired you to set up the company?
MyJobMag was founded to educate young people and help them find jobs easily. At inception, MyJobMag’s vision was ‘Job search made easy.’ There is a lot to be done in Africa to help young people improve their lives and have better careers. From career coaching, mentoring, search to tools, young people in Africa still need so much support to get started. Success for MyJobMag is about having young people find their paths, get jobs, become successful in their careers and help organisations to achieve their goals effectively and efficiently. MyJobMag was conceived when we realised that organisations are not optimising their social-economic performance due to the dearth of a credible platform in which they could source for skilled and competent human resources. We believe that through our services, we are contributing to nation-building by stimulating inclusive growth, addressing societal ills due to unemployment and ensuring that African organisations build firms that endure.
As a career company, how has it leveraged technology to solve human resources and education needs in Africa?
With technology, we reached out, at very short notice, to job seekers and recruiters in Africa. Using technology as a driver, we have succeeded in solving a series of challenges plaguing recruiters and candidates in Africa. Some of the solutions we have developed and are in use include; candidate filtering tools for recruiters; CV builder for job seekers to quickly build their CVs, choose a template and download CV; MySalaryScale – for comparative salary research and company reviews; and Career Matcher for career path discovery and advisory. In the coming months, we will be improving on existing tools and further launch new tools to solve human resources needs in Nigeria and Africa in general. We have also deployed technology to encourage young Africans, to enable them to explore legitimate and sustainable sources of earnings instead of using their technical skills and talent for cybercrimes.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria has a high unemployment rate of 27.1 percent as at the second quarter of 2020. What can you say about this and what can be done by the government to reduce this rate?
Nigeria’s mono-economy, lack of diversification and poor necessary infrastructure (power, roads, interstate rails, etc.) discourage local and foreign investments. Also, educational courses in Institutions are not synchronised with industries’ demand for the modern workforce. This results in limited demand for labour and a limited supply of skilled human resources. To solve this problem from its roots, the government needs to build the necessary infrastructure, ensure the security of lives and property, guarantee sanctity of agreement and create stable policies that will encourage foreign investment and invest in education and its reforms.
How has Covid-19 affected your business?
Covid-19 came as a shock to the world in 2020, and MyJobMag was not exempted. However, due to our agility, rigorous scenario planning activities pre-Covid, it has prepared us to identify scarce opportunities and explore them. Covid-19 has us given us time to rethink and realign to ensure that we are focusing on the most critical aspects of our vision. It also allowed us to emphasise our organisational purpose, train our colleagues, help our stakeholders to address their strategic needs and position the organisation for success now and in the future. In the face of the confusion created by Covid-19, we built a career matcher tool to assist people in discovering their careers and realigning their interests. We are also automating more processes, while not losing the personal touch in what we do.
How will you evaluate your business growth since you started?
MyJobMag has experienced steady and increased growth over the years. MyJobMag bootstrapped its way since inception. We have grown organically both from a user base and financial perspective. We pride in our resourceful and growing team that consistently delivers top-notch products and services for our teeming users.
What do you do differently in this field that makes you and your products/services stand out?
We put our stakeholders’ needs and satisfaction first. MyJobMag is a for-profit social enterprise that is driven by love for the people and businesses we serve. Our daily decisions at MyJobMag are people-centric and exude passion for our vision and the success of our great country. This can be seen in the vast volume of bespoke resources, content and tools we make available to our users on MyJobMag; from free templates, CV Builder to our salary research platform and Career Matcher.
What advice can you give to other entrepreneurs?
Although businesses should make a profit to flourish, entrepreneurs should make stakeholder satisfaction a priority and must have a moral compass. The passion for solving the problems being faced by your users and customers is what will keep you going. Always remember that sustainable success is a marathon and can only be achieved when through your service, you consistently help your clients to solve their challenges effectively and efficiently. In summary, show integrity and grit every day, and you will consistently win.
