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Artifind Nigeria: Find the nearest and best Artisans in Nigeria

Ile-Ife, NigeriaYaba, Nigeria
Perfect Makanju
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJFqwLLnQ1Y
Year Founded:
2014
Organization type:
for profit
Project Stage:
Start-Up
Budget:
$1,000 - $10,000
Website:
http://artifind.com.ng
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ArtifindNigeria
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/ArtifindNigeria

Business
Fair trade
Rural development
Technology
Security

Project Summary
Elevator Pitch

Concise Summary: Help us pitch this solution! Provide an explanation within 3-4 short sentences.

On average, 300,000 Nigerians are in constant need of an artisan daily, but there is no dedicated solution to making it easy to find the best and
credible artisan for the job. Artifind is a solution that is aimed at making credible artisans more accessible to the public.

WHAT IF - Inspiration: Write one sentence that describes a way that your project dares to ask, "WHAT IF?"

What if, all it took to find an artisan during emergencies (such as a car breaking down while traveling) was a single click away?

About Project

Problem: What problem is this project trying to address?

In Nigeria, getting access to the best artisans around is not feasible. And half of the time, artisans that are immediately accessible are frauds
who have little or no skill.

Solution: What is the proposed solution? Please be specific!

A mobile platform that provides access to the nearest and best artisans around a person. All artisans on this platform will be guaranteed to be
qualified and safe to work with. This way the platform provides ease of finding artisans anywhere especially where you don't have a friend to
provide recommendations and you still have the confidence of getting a credible recommendation from the application.

Awards

First Place Winner of the 2013 Code-Camp Bootcamp Product Competition organized by Co-Creation Hub, Nigeria.

Impact: How does it Work

Example: Walk us through a specific example(s) of how this solution makes a difference; include its primary activities.

An average of 600,000 Tourists visit Nigeria and about 2,500,000 Nigerians travel within the country yearly. With Artifind, they have access to
artisans that can help them with their daily needs without exposing themselves to the risk/danger of looking for an artisan. All they need to do is
download they android application, and on launching of the application, they select the relevant artisan that they needed. Or better still, they can
easily send an SMS to a Short Code and we would send them a list of contact details of available artisans around.

Impact: What is the impact of the work to date? Also describe the projected future impact for the coming years.

Since launch in 2014, the platform: - has had 35 registered users. - has recorded about 108 active users (because users can search for artisans
1
 without signing up). - has had user sessions constituting of 75% returning users and 25% users overtime. -has partnered with 2 Local Artisan
organizations in 2 states. And during this period, we have: - partnered with 2 local artisan organization in 2 states. - also gotten partnership
requests from two incubation hubs.

Spread Strategies: Moving forward, what are the main strategies for scaling impact?

We will be starting out in the Countries Economic Capital (Lagos State). Liasing with various local artisan organizations to get their certified
artisans on the platform. And after building a customer base of 10,000 users with an average of 1,500 active users per week, we will expand to
other states. The subsequent states will be selected based on their development Index in the Country. We will expand this way till we have
coverage of all Nigerian States.

Sustainability

Financial Sustainability Plan: What is this solution’s plan to ensure financial sustainability?

The platform will be charging its customers a token for the services rendered to them. And also we will be providing an Enterprise Package for big
business where we manage and provide for all their artisan related needs for a fee.

Marketplace: Who else is addressing the problem outlined here? How does the proposed project differ from these
approaches?

1. VConnect (http://www.vconnect.com/) (recently switched product line) 2. SlotJobs(http://www.slotjobs.com) 3. Goly(http://www.goly.co/) We

involve the two major stakeholders(Artisans,People) in the constant development and improvement of our platform as our vision is to make it
seamless and secure in the best way possible. We are working hand-in-hand with the Artisans organisations and the importance of this cannot be
overemphasised in what makes us stand out as a trusted platform.

Team

Founding Story

The founders met at a hackathon organised by Co-creation hub in Yaba , Lagos; And while discussing, the idea of using a mobile device to get
tailors, barbers was strictly challenging, so we gave it a shot at building one.

Team

1) Oyewale Ademola S. Operations and Team Lead | Co-Founder B.Sc. Computer Engineering (2016) Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife Provide
overall project oversight and measure the performance of the project. Knows how the project is performing against milestones, time frames,
deliverables, budget and resources. 2) Makanju O. Perfect Technical Lead | Co-Founder B.Sc. Computer Engineering (2016) Obafemi Awolowo
University Ile-Ife Manages technical development efforts and provides the technical perspective in day-to-day project decisions. Worked with
several startups with solid technical expertise. 3) Gbenga Sesan Team Adviser Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN).
Responsible for advising the team on strategic issues.

Source URL: https://www.changemakers.com/uconn-susi-student-leaders-social-entrepreneurship-2015/entries/artifind-nigeria