My idea is creating a platform where young talented Nigerians making creative products produced in Nigeria can offer their products and services for patronage. The platform will showcase exclusively local yet premium quality products, and be the go-to place for people to discover great local products and also a medium to connect potential buyers with sellers. It will provide talented Nigerians an opportunity to create a portfolio of their works, skills, product or service for greater exposure. Their portfolio will comprise of images/text or videos of their works, email contact and their city of residence and will be highly moderated & scrutinized by the Talent Market team to ensure that only the best of products and genuine sellers get published on the Talent market platform. Harsh economic realities has taken its toll on every facet of living in Nigeria, the unemployment rate in Nigeria has risen from 8.2% in the 2nd quarter of 2015 to 13.3% in 4th quarter of 2016, forecasts suggest that it will climb up to 14.1% before the end of the 2nd quarter of 2017, and with youths under 35years estimated to constitute about 70% of Nigeria’s population this implies that the recession will leave behind an army of unemployed young people who may resort to several forms of vices in a quest for survival. For talented young Nigerians, entrepreneurship would have been an “easy" way out to cushion the effect of the tough times but starting up a business in Nigeria with low funding can be difficult, even when you succeed in starting out increasing your exposure level will always prove to be a daunting task. With Talent Market this challenge is solved, young people with quality products or services to render do not need to think of going through the usual difficulties accustomed with starting up a business in Nigeria; renting a shop, buying a generating set, paying PHCN bills, paying council taxes, advertisement, etc. All they need to do is create a portfolio of what they offer and they will get the right exposure. Talent market will help talented young people with products/services having low funding bootstrap and make profit to grow their businesses. For 5years now I have worked as a digital strategist; a job that demands the study of human behaviourial patterns and what forces human behaviour. I also understand the place of credibility in social web and how to build, maintain and manage a community, this has sufficiently prepared me for Talent Market. For over 5months I have been building a database of talented young people with little capital and quality products.
As earlier mentioned, my name is Paul Alfred, a Civil/Environmental Engineering graduate from the University of Port Harcourt. My passion lies were tech, art, culture, design and innovation interface. I started my career as a digital strategist 5years ago at Arden & Newton (a digital marketing agency/Brand management company), over this period I have had the opportunity of building and maintaining online communities, designing and executing digital campaigns, mining data and most essentially learning how to optimize content and technology. I received a Google Adwords certification in 2014. If I am to describe myself in a word I will say; “Innovator", as I love to design products and experiences and their interactions with people. On the 10th of November 2016, I launched my first digital product GreenPassportQuiz.com ,Nigeria’s largest online trivia game which helps people measure how much of a Nigerian they are, basically measuring their “Nigerianess”. Am naturally curious never scared to swim against the tide.