Skip to main content

Stanley Onyekachi is improving lives via WeFix.com.ng



The utmost significance of an innovation is that it improves lives, and that is exactly what Igwe Stanley Onyekachi is doing with his platform WeFix.com.ng, an online platform that connects handymen and repairmen with customers. The graduate of Chemistry from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, had experienced the challenges of getting repairmen to fix a bad appliance and decided to solve the problem.

“First, you don’t find them when you need them. Secondly, you cannot be entirely sure that they will show up. And lastly, their quality of service,” he said in an interview with online media, BossMan.

Unlike similar platforms which simply connect repairmen to customers, this Port –Harcourt based start-up also operates a pickup – drop off repair delivery system. Also, the repairmen are professionally and specifically trained for different appliances and brands. Therefore, customers are assured of a satisfactory service.

Whatever you’re building, you have to believe in God and believe in yourself.  For nothing good comes easy.

On why he decided to go digital with his idea, Onyekachi said, “My question was how come we can’t get well-trained professionals, and get our appliances fixed by booking at the comfort of our homes. That was how I came up with the idea of WeFix.ng.” So far, business has been good with over 150 bookings since it launched in July 2016. Customers appreciate the ease and comfort of the repair service.


However, establishing and getting the business to where it is today was not easy. Onyekachi raised funds from co-founders, family members, and friends. After that, he had to deal with the trust issues of Nigerians. “It was difficult convincing Nigerians that you will have to pick up their appliances from their home, fix and deliver it, with all the insecurity and lack of trust in the system …,” he said.

How it works

Clients go on the site and book a service by filling out a request form. After which they receive an SMS/Email/Call that confirms the success of their booking. A WeFixer (repairer from WeFix) arrives at the provided address, inspects the job, quotes a price, and gets to work. On completion or delivery, the customer fills a job completion form and makes cash payment. The start-up promises to begin online payment soon.

According to Onyekachi, he is nursing expansion plans to other Nigerian cities, and is currently working on getting funds to that effect. He says although the experience of establishing a business has been tough, he would keep pushing till he gets the best. “Every day I wake up to a new challenge and I have to strategize on how to stay ahead.”

One of the gains of being an entrepreneur is being able to build a solution that people love. And when you are solving a real problem in the society, that can also be counted as a gain.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mohammed Dewji: A Made in Africa success story

Mohammed Dewji has built his family business from a $26m  trading and distribution company importing goods into Tanzania  into a manufacturer of multiple products and one of Africa’s few companies with revenues of over $1bn. His next target is to generate $5bn of revenues by 2020 and employ 100,000 people across Africa. Dewji is unassuming and doesn’t seek the limelight. However, this quiet demeanour should not fool you. Dewji is direct and to the point. He was voted Business Leader of the Year at the African Business Awards in 2015 and headed the Institut Choiseul’s list of leading young African economic leaders in 2016. As one tracks his career it is obvious to see why. His major feat has been to oversee generational change in the family business and, along with this, its complete transformation, growing its revenues from $26m in 1999 to over $1.5bn last year. He acknowledges the head start he received from being born a Dewji. The family business was very succes...

Building a profitable green economy in Africa

Viewed from a dramatic granite formation jutting above the town, the central Ugandan settlement of Soroti doesn’t amount to much. A series of low-rise rectangular buildings, drifting off into a featureless hinterland, it appears a regional administrative and commercial centre of little importance. Yet in December, European Union and Ugandan diplomats, wielding commemorative spears and greeted by brightly attired locals, gathered to cut the ribbon on a development that could put this backwater firmly on the map. Soroti’s vast solar plant is the largest of its kind in  East Africa , a sprawling site of over 32,000 photovoltaic panels that will add an initial 10MW of electricity generating capacity to the local area. Backed by development funds from European taxpayers and foreign private capital, the $19m project aims to power up to 40,000 homes, schools and hospitals, while kick-starting regional economic growth and delivering profits to its commercial backers. It is on...

Property CEO talks about opportunities in the Kenyan market

  The Greenspan shopping mall in Nairobi In November 2015 the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) listed its first real estate investment trust (REIT), the Stanlib Fahari I-REIT.  The fund currently owns three properties in Nairobi – the Greenspan shopping mall and two mixed office and light industrial properties. It is now looking for additional investments. How we made it in Africa  talks to Fahari’s CEO, Kenneth Masika, on introducing a new security to the market, as well as some of the opportunities he sees in Kenya’s property sector. Below are slightly edited extracts.  Is the fund mostly focused on commercial property or is it also looking at residential? At the fund we’ve got a strategy where we want to create a diversified portfolio of quality assets, and so we are looking into the main sectors of property – that is  retail , commercial, light industrial,  hospitality , and residential. But what we are doing, to start with as we...