LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Bookings Africa, a digital work platform connecting clients to skilled professionals in Africa
Fade Ogunro is the founder and ceo of BookingsAfrica.com, a pan-African digital work platform that enables African service providers, agencies and professionals digitize and monetize their skills by connecting clients efficiently and transparently to skilled professionals in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa. As a leading technology platform, Bookings Africa is the only African freelance marketplace with a video call feature that allows clients and Brands connect with service providers from procurement, payment to service delivery which is rendered end-to-end, online. Fade has over 15 years of experience in media and technology, and most recently is also the Africa Chair for the Cherie Blair Foundation. She is dedicated to the pursuit of gender equality, digital gig work opportunities and African prosperity. Her vision is to produce self-sustainable and dignified work through digital work for over 5 million Africans.
Lioness Weekender spoke to Fade Ogunro to find out more about what inspired her entrepreneurial journey, what drives her passion and motivation in business, and her aspirations for Bookings Africa over the next few years.
What inspired you to start your company?
I own a production company with my brother and at the time, we had to shoot a lot of content and documentaries for brands and music artists across Africa. I noticed over time that the company was losing a lot of money and time during pre-production because it was challenging getting talents such as photographers, makeup artists, and hairdressers for their videos and documentaries. As a business owner I was looking for ways to increase my profit margin and make the process smoother. The only thing I could think of was to access or book the crew, talent, and equipment needed on time. I thought things would be easier for me if there was a database to access these guys in different countries. It was much later, after a bizarre dream in February 2016, that I decided to tackle the problem head-on and started working on creating a digital platform that would provide access to creative talents in the continent.
What makes your business, service or product special?
Bookings Africa has a dedicated team who understands the vision of the company to enable individuals monetize their skills, passion and talent by providing easy access to the largest database of professionals and digital labour across Africa.
Tell us a little about your team
As a start up, my team has had a huge impact in the growth of the company with developing strategies and finding solutions to problems that gig workers face. The team has successfully signed up over 15,000 talented service providers, hosted 10 master classes, and worked with notable brands like Coca-Cola, Nivea, Ogilvy, Betway, Estee Lauder, and Film Factory, who constantly rely on our pool of talents and execution. The Bookings Africa team is more like a family that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
With a background in Journalism and creative writing from Roehampton University, my sojourn into the industry started in the UK where I worked for Google. Upon my return to Nigeria, in 2010, I worked for The Beat 99.9 FM radio station. Asides running my own fashion show called Fashion Friday with Fade, I launched my executive production career in 2011 and co-founded film factory with my brother Sesan successfully producing tv commercials and documentaries for multinationals like Nokia, Airtel, ARM Life Insurance, General Electric, Coco-Cola, Microsoft, Lancome, and MTN; and also produced music videos for some of Nigeria’s popular artistes to launch Bookings Africa.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
My aspiration for Bookings Africa is to scale to 15-20 African countries in the next 5- 10 years, 3 million active users in 3-5 years with more professions, and be the preferred digital work platform in Africa. Also, for us to evolve so our solutions are innovative, applicable and beneficial to all users.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
My satisfaction as an entrepreneur is in growing my team in terms of skill acquisition to gain experience, and for the Bookings Africa platform to provide value to all its users
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
My advice to women looking to start-up is to "Measure twice, cut once". I advise you to know as much as you can about your business so as to put your best forward when you finally get started.
To find out more about BookingsAfrica.com, visit the website or contact Fade directly via email at Fade@bookingsafrica.com. You can also follow Fade and the work of BookingsAfrica.com follow them on social media:
