“I fill out job applications almost every day. Fuzu makes job seeking easy and keeps me informed of what is on offer. When you create a profile on Fuzu, the service looks for the jobs that match your search criteria and sends you messages about them,” says Gregory Oyolo, from Nairobi, who dreams about a job as a buyer.

Youth unemployment is a huge problem in Kenya. Before, the situation was even worse because job seekers did not often even know about vacancies. Fuzu, founded in Finland in 2015, changed the situation. This online career and recruitment platform brings together job seekers and companies that get in direct contact with skilled job seekers. The service provides career coaching and tips on how to write a CV. By the end 2017, more than 2,5 million Kenyan people had already used the service.

In 2018 Fuzu operated in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia and Tanzania. Within next five years it will expand to other African countries as millions of new job seekers enter the continent’s labour market each year. When young people find work, the need to leave their home countries becomes less pressing. This helps to prevent migration. In 2016 Fuzu received funding from the Finnish development finance company Finnfund, majority of which is owned by the State of Finland. The innovation funding programme BEAM, funded by Finland, and the Finnish Business Partnership Programme, Finnpartnership, also supported Fuzu.

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Photo: Mikko Kiviluoto, graphics: Juho Hiilivirta