Chika Uwazie: Nigeria can export HR system to other African countries

In a period the Nigerian Government is desperate to diversify the economy in order to exit from recession and grow GDP fast, Chika Uwazie is looking beyond the obvious places to exporting human resource system, which she sees as the next big thing.
The 29-year old plans to make her company, TalentBase, not only the place to go to for all HR issues – salaries, pensions, taxes, and human capital development in Nigeria but other African countries as well. Guess what, she’s convinced software development will do the trick. The HR expert tells Clara Nwachukwu how she plans to achieve this.
Tell us about TalentBase?
It’s a Human Resource (HR) and payroll software company. We founded it about two years ago because we noticed that many Nigerian SMEs are still using paper, still using excel to manage their payroll and it’s support system. In order for these SMEs to grow and to get more structure, one of the key things they need is a digital payroll system that is also affordable. So, we built a very simple system that is affordable and easy to use, and companies with five employees all the way to 100 can use the system.
Why the interest in HR?
I was a HR consultant for over eight years. I spent some time working at the World Bank, worked at ExxonMobil Lagos, and did some other HR consulting, so actually I studied it. My first degree was in Psychology; basically I love working with people and helping them solve their challenges, so HR was a natural fit for me.
How old is TalentBase, and how successful has it been?
It has been on since 2015. We currently have over 150 companies currently using our software. And it’s everyone from Bella Naija to the CDL African League to XoL, etc. Many different companies use our software, and we have about 10,000 employees on the platform. We also have investors that have invested in our company.

 POSTED BY:OPUOMONI PRIYE
DATE:06/09/2017