We are back to the article that got me kicked out of the Silicon Africa Facebook group. Yes, the one about the talent tussle that seems to be happening among some tech companies in Nigeria, and may be turning out to be a trend. It is obvious that these companies also monitor online media to see what people are reading and how they are responding.
Kasuwa wrote to us via their public relation department and made a public comment regarding the article. Below is the public statement that we received from Kasuwa:
We would like to address the recent online conversations about Kasuwa.com “luring talent from other tech companies and start-ups” in an effort to start a talent war. Like any other start-up, we are making efforts to invest in the most creative minds and the best of talent as it applies to our industry.
Operating in Nigeria’s budding e-commerce industry has been quite an exciting adventure so far and we have made some amazing friends like the awesome people at Iroko TV. It is true we are working together on innovative initiatives that will grow our industry and take Nigerian e-commerce to the next level.
We look forward to building our team and growing as Nigeria’s No.1 Online Retailer.
Let me stress that this ‘talent tussle‘ is a welcomed trend, and sure cannot wait for it to get to the next level – perk war. Like I said in my previous post, it shows there is some form of innovation – whether copied or created. The big box of cash on ones’ side is definitely a good thing as it enables one get the ‘most creative minds and the best of talent‘, so no need wasting time placing Ads on Jobberman and attending to 100,000+ CVs that follow.
Thus, I applaud Kasuwa and Sabunta on allegedly re-starting the talent war, at least there’s got to be talent for such war to be started, and now developers and IT young chaps can buckle up to be employed by Nigeria’s fortune companies like iROKO and Kasuwa.
Now the rant is over, can we move on to other things like getting me back into the Silicon Africa Facebook group.