A Finnish start-up is setting up a responsible employment service in Africa
In Swahili, “fuzu” means success and prosperity that is based on your own work. In 2013, Jussi Hinkkanen and a business partner of his funded a company called Fuzu, which aims to build a network of employment services for the developing world, a kind of an African LinkedIn.
A direct comparison to LinkedIn does not describe Fuzu’s operating principles totally accurately, but it may help to understand how ambitious the project is.
“Fuzu is a social networking service and a personalized employment service platform that connects job providers and applicants and is aimed at the needs of the developing African market,” says Jussi Hinkkanen, CEO of Fuzu.
In Africa, in particular, a large number of people do not have formal qualifications at all, and Fuzu will help them to demonstrate their knowledge potential.
Fuzu is also a career development platform, as it aims to support not only employment but also the career development of employees.
"In the future, it will be essential to be able to validate the skills of job applicants, as competence-based learning is replacing qualifications-based learning."
In Africa, in particular, a large number of people do not have formal qualifications at all, and Fuzu will help them to demonstrate their knowledge potential.
Fuzu launched in Kenya 2015 – people stopped by to get their shoes polished and register as Fuzu users in the process.
Social responsibility at the heart of the business
Social responsibility is at the heart of Fuzu’s business, as Fuzu provides opportunities for all people looking for work regardless of their socio-economic background or education. This is extremely important especially in the developing markets of Africa: to find jobs for people.
“Our solution benefits both the employees and the employers. In Africa, it is the socio-economic inequalities, hierarchical societies, and the lack of access to education and the ability to influence things that stop many people from getting ahead in life. This is particularly damaging to young people. 60% of the population of Africa are under the age of 25 and they are facing huge challenges with finding employment”, Hinkkanen says.
Fuzu’s employment service platform also carefully identifies the job providers in order to ensure humane working conditions and terms of employment for the applicants.
“At the same time, we are creating an entirely new culture of leadership in Africa, where leadership models are still very traditional. Employers must be made aware that the best employees want to join companies that have an open atmosphere and treat people well”, Hinkkanen continues (Photo: Jussi Hinkkanen at XcitED Event at 2017).
Huge potential despite the challenges
According to a survey by the African Youth Survey, more than half of young people in Africa are considering moving abroad because of poor prospects. The change for the worse has been rapid.
“Developing markets are the most vulnerable to the shocks of the world economy because of they are lacking social protection mechanisms and the concept of social security. The role of Fuzu is to help young people to find their place in their local labor markets, so that getting a job is not only based on existing networks and relationships.”
At the moment, the mainland attracts top-level experts to solve problems, and Finland benefits from being among them..
However, Hinkkanen says that despite its challenges, the African continent has enormous development potential and someone must lead the way.
Fuzu’s potential for success is in part supported by Hinkkanen’s strong previous work experience with African markets and their distinctive features. For example, he has acted as an adviser to the Minister of Science and Technology of Mozambique, led Mozambique’s information society initiatives in the UN’s global development network UNDP, and served in Nokia’s leadership team for India, the Middle East, and Africa.
“Africa is often perceived as a crowded population bomb. In reality, the African continent is ten times the size of India while its population is only the same as India’s. It has about a dozen major economies. At the moment, the mainland attracts top-level experts to solve problems, and Finland benefits from being among them."
Recent development funding helps to deploy the service in destination countries
In August, Business Finland granted Fuzu development funding provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from the Developing Markets Platform service.
The aim of the funding service is to help Finnish companies and their local partners to promote sustainable business.
“Developing Markets Platform funding is granted to Finnish companies operating in and aiming for developing markets that have an identified market opportunity and active local partners", says Noora Piri, Financial Advisor at Business Finland.
Fuzu has already received Business Finland’s innovation funding for research and development on a few occasions. The latest innovation funding received in 2020 was a prerequisite for granting the Developing Markets Platform funding.
The funding provided will help to develop and deploy Fuzu’s digital service with the help of local partners in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.
The whole Team Fuzu in Mombasa 2020
Africa is not a quickie
“An essential prerequisite for granting the Developing Markets Platform funding is that the company has the potential to grow its business and make a positive development impact on the target markets. As a company that promotes social responsibility, Fuzu meets these conditions excellently”, Piri explains.
The African labor market is very heterogeneous, and one size does not fit all.
Among other things, Fuzu is currently researching the next generation of AI-based machine learning models for developing its service. The African labor market is very heterogeneous, and one size does not fit all. In the future, the content of the service will be personalized for different target groups, such as job applicants with higher education and more work experience.
The market value of a start-up such as Fuzu depends on the number of users it attracts. The development work will require long-term commitment from the company and its investors, as Africa is not a quickie.