Kenya’s Workpay Expands to Nigeria, Launches New Product Line

A Kenyan-based company WorkPay that provides human resource management and payroll tools to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) has expanded to Nigeria.

The firm’s entry to the West African country comes a year after it received $2.1 million last year in seed funding for expansion to other markets.

Workpay’s CEO and Co-Founder Paul Kimani said Nigeria would as company’s hub for the West Africa region. “Nigeria is a key market for us, not only in West Africa but throughout Africa. SMEs in this region face similar challenges as their counterparts in East Africa and indeed across emerging markets. We plan to use Nigeria as our gateway to West Africa including Francophone Africa.

“In the next few months we will be progressively growing the team in Nigeria in various roles in business, customer support and others,” Paul said.

With many firms expanding to Africa or seeking to tap into the African workforce, the company also launched remote teams for payrolls for firms hiring in the continent.

Moreover, this new product line will enable foreign companies to overcome recruitment challenges in Africa by making it possible for them to hire personnel legally through WorkPay.

According to World Economic Forum, Sub-Saharan Africa will contribute to 17% of the world’s working age population by 2030. With labour shortages grappling in European countries like Britain, firms may want to source workers from Africa.

Workpay has over 300 active SME clients including Nigeria’s fintech firm Flutterware and processes monthly payroll for more than 25,000 employees worth $2.5 million.

The Company, which is a graduate of Y Combinator and Google for Startups Africa was recently picked among other 50 companies in Africa to get equity-free funding and support from Google’s Black Founders Fund Africa.