How three students built Nigeria’s biggest online recruitment company

In the summer of 2009, three students found themselves with a lot of free time as lecturers at Nigerian universities went on strike.

Instead of sitting idle, Ayodeji Adewunmi, Olalekan Olude and Opeyemi Awoyemi founded an online job search company.

Five years later, their startup, Jobberman, is valued at a multi-million dollar valuation, has 125 employees, and is still growing.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy but still faces serious unemployment problems, especially among young people who are more frequently connected to the internet.

Jobberman has become the largest job placement website in Sub-Saharan Africa, helping over 35,000 people find employment in the past two years.

The number of companies using the site to find employees has increased from around 40 in 2009 to around 35,000 today.

The site lists between 500 and 1,000 jobs every day, and the founders estimate that there are about 1,000 active users looking for work at any given time.

“The growth has been phenomenal, rocket speed. One of the biggest challenges is keeping up with the workload,” Olalekan says.

But there were other challenges along the way.

“Initially, many people did not trust internet-based businesses because at that time in Nigeria, many people were using the internet to carry out fraudulent activities,” he said.

But as other online businesses thrived and gained trust, so did Jobberman. Businesses dipped their toes in the water with a post or two, then came back once they trusted the site.

In 2012, Jobberman landed its first job outside Nigeria after some of its clients wanted to use the site to find workers in Ghana.

Two years later, the company says it is now the largest online job site in Ghana and Nigeria.

The company is currently expanding into Kenya with a partner called Bright Monday, which will also see the company expand into Uganda and Tanzania.

Some people find jobs through the site without actually applying.

Amarachi Apacama uploaded her personal information and was approached by a company for a job as an executive assistant at a mobile phone content company.

“It really changed my life,” she says. “It was a morale booster. The fact that I didn’t have to apply for the job because my interests and experience aligned so well gave me confidence.”

“Helping people gain financial independence through job placements through Jobberman has been incredibly rewarding,” said founder Ayodeji Adewunmi.

“One company hired over 80% of their employees through the site. In another example, a director was able to bring a former colleague from the U.S. to work for their company here in Lagos. These are all great stories.”

Olalekan Olude added: “If you can find work for someone and put food on the table, that person is also providing for their mother and siblings and it creates a multiplier effect within that family.”

“And every time we hear a story like that, we feel very, very happy. It motivates us to look to the future and work hard to create more jobs for more people.”