MafundiKenya, an online portal, is set to end the hassles typical in finding technicians to repair minor household electrical faults, a common problem facing Kenya’s major urban settings.
In a country of about 40 million people and an unemployment rate of 40 percent, 64 percent of them constituting the youth according to SE101: Africa 2008 statistics, the youth who form a majority of the artisans are likely to benefit from the MafundiKenya initiative.
The service that aims to connect informal artisans to lucrative contracts is based on a similar concept as LinkedIn, one of the world’s largest professional networking sites. Edward Kinyanjui and Patrick Mwangi, the founders, however say they do not intend to go viral online.
For one to be listed on Mafundi, their skills and background have to be rated through analysis of track record and recommendations from past employers. This ensures dishonest artisans who have ruined the art and reduced the trade to petty theft are eliminated, Edward told HumanIPO.
To post a job, prospective clients sign up, fill in their details and post the position. Once the site receives job requests, the artisans are identified and asked to submit their quotes. The site would then send the quotes to the clients and feedback to the artisans.
Additional attractive features include subscription for SMS job alerts. The site is also working on a mobile platform to help artisan job seekers login and update their details on the go.
Aiming at having more than 15,000 subscribers before the end of the year, MafundiKenya is at present reworking on their systems set for a big July launch.
“We know that we are bridging the gap for city professionals and soon we will be working at county levels when we get funding. We are now working with construction engineers and the service is helpful to their businesses,” said Kinyanjui.
The artisans pay alerts fee of Ksh 33 per day while firms have a Silver, Gold and Bronze membership fee of Ksh 2500, 3000 and 1000 per month respectively. Clients use the service at no cost.
MafundiKenya was founded in 2010 when both founders, Patrick and Edward, were students at a college in London. The two have been working on their systems and are presently doing their public testing.
