ForgetMeNot Africa (FMNA) has launched a new SMS application in Nigeria to allow job seekers to send their CVs to employers via SMS. The new app is live on the Glo Mobile mobile network, an FMNA partner in Nigeria. So far access to the application is free but the network plans to start charging a flat subscription fee for a given period in the coming.
Glo Mobile already runs FMNA’s Message Optimiser platform, the same platform FMNA has implemented in other markets across Africa amoung them Zimbabwe, Morrocco, Kenya, Congo and Lesotho. Basically the Message Optimiser enables basic mobile phones to communicate with internet applications via SMS. A popular application on the platform across the markets has been Facebook chat via SMS.
According to FMNA JobXpress responds to high unemployment rate in Nigeria and the wider Africa. They quote the OECD figures released in May that revealed 40 million African youths are currently unemployed. The app won’t create employment of-course, just access to the opportunities more conveniently. It bypasses the current need for fixed broadband, computers, smartphones or expensive mobile data plans just to get your application in.
But how is the actual CV attached to an SMS, you may be wondering. Well, actually there is some direct interfacing with web at some point. The job seeker has to initially upload up to 5 documents (CVs) to the FMNA platform via the web. Once the CVs are on the FMNA platform, the subscriber can reference any one of them in an job application SMS message (without needing to connect to the internet).
FMNA says the plan is to roll out the JobXpress service to the other markets they operate soon.
Glo Mobile is part of the Globacom network, Nigeria’s largest independent mobile phone network with 25 million subscribers.
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4 comments
I am beginning to dislike sms applications, whilst they offer services to the lower end of the social pyramid, they also maintain the status qou where Telcos keep on dishing out expensive and obsolete services, i would prefer if Telcos pushed data services aggressively. Data applications are just much more smarter and faster.
their app website has a
“500 – Internal server error.”
Hoping that the idea was already in place before the Mojo app
The app website was down due to an undersea cable being cut in Nigeria – it is now back up again.
Viva USSD