The Reporter (Addis Ababa)
22 December 2007
Addis Ababa — Info Mind Solutions (IMS) announced on Monday the launch of its Africa-wide job board, www.zebrajobs.net in a joint venture with a US based company, Danya International Inc.
IMS is the largest recruitment/human resource development agency in Ethiopia and the sole online recruitment provider in Ethiopia. Launched in 2004, its online platform, ethiojobs.net, has now an impressive 70,000 registered job seekers and 100 organizations that use its service to recruit professionals.
Following its success in Ethiopia, IMS has now launched zebrajobs to serve as a platform for employers and job seekers from all over Africa and in the diaspora to meet and exchange job-related information through the internet. Zebrajobs aims to provide jobs by aggregating jobs available throughout Africa and making them accessible in one place. On the day of its launch, zebrajobs had close to 9,000 jobs listed and aims to register one million job seekers worldwide.
Yusuf Reja, managing director of IMS, said that zebrajobs will be more than a job site where career information, internships and education opportunities essential to developing the human capital of the continent will be made available.
Danya International provides breakthrough services in the areas of public health communication, research and evaluation, information technology, education and training, program management support, and health product development. According to Dr. Jeff Hoffman, CEO and president of the company, besides providing jobs for Africans in the continent, the site will also be useful to those in the diaspora who wish to come back and work in their home countries.
Recounting a personal experience he had while he was in Addis for another job, Dr. Hoffman told of a shoeshine boy whom he had met outside of his hotel. After talking to him for a while, Dr. Hoffman learnt that the boy had a brother who recently graduated from University but was unable to find a job. Having met Yusuf and his team from IMS for his own recruitment need, Dr. Hoffman directed this man to IMS where they helped him upgrade his CV and find a job. "Finding a good job is one of the most important steps in a person's life. If this investment can help people in Africa find good jobs, we will have made an important contribution", said Dr. Hoffman.
After using the service of IMS and hearing the business proposal Yusuf presented him, Dr. Hoffman was eager to get on board. Based in Silverspring, Maryland, Danya International has a marketing team in the US while the majority of the team for zebrajobs is based in Addis.
Zebrajobs, like its counterpart ethiojobs, is free for jobseekers. For now, employers get their jobs posted for free on zebrajobs which aims to get its revenue by advertisement form traffic generated by users.
Asked about what the job site offers for graduates fresh from universities and colleges, Yusuf reminded everyone that IMS has in the past held the first ever career fair in Ethiopia solely aimed for new graduates. "We are aggregating jobs for now, buts soon we will be posting internships which are hard to find over the internet and instrumental in accumulating he necessary experience and network for graduates" added Dr. Hoffman.
Yusuf added that IMS has a server based in the US which is near to the internet backbone with state of the art technology capable of ensuring the security of its customers' information and redundant backup systems to safe keep their data.
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