It is one great move for Wok.Com.Ng to take Nigeria economy to a higher ground by providing a safe and secure web platform where every Nigerian that own a computer or mobile phone with internet connection could provide sundry services like designing a logo and selling it to another customer miles away, an accountant who is skilled at Microsoft excel can help to format another person’s excel sheet for a small fee, an artist can display his art and let new customers send him photos to draw and many more. All these and many more can be done through this online platform.
This is triggered by the slowing down of the Nigerian economy and massive job cuts which has caused many Nigerians to have a rethink. Now you can use your skills which could either be a routine or a hobby or turn it to a part time job via Wok.com.ng where a user can sell his services from 1,000 Naira upwards.
Wok is a word we coined from the Nigerian Pidgin English which means Work. Wok can be used as a noun e.g. “I no sale any wok today” or as a verb e.g. “oga give me wok, I go wok am for you”. Let’s get to wok.
“Our mission is to empower people who have valid technical skills but have no white collar jobs to support themselves or who have white collar jobs but need to do some extra jobs to supplement their income.”
Economic Background
As at October 2015 Nigeria’s unemployment rate stood at 9.9%, and is forecasted to reach 20% at 2020 (National Bureau of Statistics). A country of about 178.52 million people (2014), with 102 million economically active people, out of these, 75.9% are gainfully employed, 14.2% are underemployed and 9.9% are unemployed (Africa Check Statistics).
It’s however important to note here that even the employed population are quite underpaid and therefore would want to supplement their incomes.
It’s important for us as Nigerians to look inwards, harvest our individual skills and turn it to a source of sustainable income.
Building Trust and confidence
“Nigeria is a nation filled with smart and indeed talented people, and we recognize that it’s important to be true to the service we offer.”
“Firstly, we made it a priority to use the best and strongest data encryption technology in the industry to protect user data, we opted to use the industry standard secure data transfer protocol HTTPS which is known to display a green security padlock on the address bar.”
“Secondly, we have made available multiple feedback mechanisms between the buyers, sellers and website engineers which include jobs flagging capabilities, online chat function and a support ticketing system which allows for notification about complaints, fraud and other online vices.”
“Thirdly, there is a trust rating system whereby sellers can be filters based on their customer rating of previous jobs. This boosts the buyer’s confidence to ensure that he is dealing with a trustworthy seller.”
Value Proposition
“We have built a platform that will enhance your productivity by helping you reach out to people who need your service. Be you a graphic designer, web developer, programmer, artist, music producer, architect, teacher, motivational speaker, life coach, etc. You can have people pay for your service from 1,000 Naira to up to 100,000 Naira and more.”
“We are not just building a website, we are building a new economy, “The Wok Economy”, where people can depend more on the services they can provide, and not entirely on what companies or the government can do for them to improve their livelihood.”
To start using Wok, there is need to signup and create a profile on what you are good at for price and start your work from home or office. In all, I’m quite positive about this recent developments and it is going to help many individuals get Wok.
