SkillPatron, the leading digital b2b online marketplace platform in Nigeria that connects large corporate procurement departments with specialized services & outsourcing projects, has expanded to East Africa with its services booking platform in Kenya.

We live, breathe and bleed “outsourcing specialized tasks & projects”, says Mshima Agah -  Client services manager at SkillPatron.

Although Jake Adebayo’ SkillPatron operates in a relatively old industry as business-to-business platforms have been around for over two decades, becoming an almost invisible engine of commerce at many small and medium-sized businesses. Inspite of b2b being around for two decades there’s one arena that online marketplaces have yet to penetrate to nearly the same degree and that's the large corporate procurement departments. This holds true even as of this writing as concerns about scale, quality, and reliability have made leaders hesitant to change their longstanding reliance on dealing directly with suppliers. At its conception SkillPatron found this is especially true for the more complicated purchases that fall under the label “indirect spend”: everything from IT and telecoms to transportation, professional services, and marketing.

With the foray of SkillPatron into the b2b online marketplace that’s starting to change. The project managers hired by SkillPatron are a new generation of procurement leaders, who have grown up buying online for increasingly complex personal needs and are beginning to wonder whether buying online also makes sense for business. SkillPatron’s powerful digital and analytic tools are also contributing to the new mind-set, opening new avenues for procurement departments to generate value in areas outside their traditional focus on transaction management.

Majority of SkillPatron’s customers indicate that their indirect spending has become a tougher challenge for chief procurement officers (CPOs). As SkillPatron has found not only is this type of spending growing but it is also encompassing a widening array of categories in services as well as goods—as SkillPatron companies become more reliant on third-party providers. Without the use of b2b services like SkillPatron, controlling spending, compliance, and risk has become a bigger headache.

SkillPatron as well as other B2B online marketplaces create self-service, digitally-sourced environments where multiple vendors can offer products or services to business customers. SkillPatron’s claim to make it easier to identify the right supplier, improving the customer experience by making transactions simpler and more transparent.

SkillPatron Buyers gain choice, value, and greater efficiencies, while SkillPatron sellers, under pressure themselves to grow revenues, gain access to a broader pool of buyers—without the burden of marketing or (depending on the specific marketplace) the need for dedicated sales, fulfillment, transactional, or logistics functions. With SkillPatron implemented well, marketplace procurement can also facilitate reporting and data analysis.

SkillPatron as a scope-of-work marketplace offer services such as marketing, telecoms, utilities, rent and real estate, insurance, and professional services (such as legal and consulting).

SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces offer several general benefits to business. Notable features on SkillPatron include greater transparency in product, service, and supplier availability—as well as in pricing and purchasing terms. For SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces Hours and time zones are irrelevant, making marketplaces truly global. And SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces perhaps most significantly as they provide CPOs with the means to offload the tactical, often repetitive work that dominates procurement (especially in indirect categories), improving their management so they can focus on more strategic activities.

On the other hand SkillPatron sellers also benefit from marketplaces, gaining access to new customers, visibility into the market’s pricing structures, and features and services they might not have otherwise been able to afford, such as lower shipping costs and better marketing analytics. Ultimately, SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces promise broader economic impact, expanding opportunities for smaller vendors.

SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces understand that buying online can be a risky proposition: each transaction is impersonal, and buyers cannot always be certain they will get everything they ordered, or that the quality (especially for a first-time purchase) will meet their needs and expectations. In an automated environment like SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces procurement managers are sure they will get the same level of service they would get with a direct vendor relationship—in logistics, billing, credit policies, and refund and exchange policies?

For SkillPatron as well as other Online B2B marketplaces to attract buyers they actually  need to attract quality vendors. To do so, they need to promise a bigger customer base than vendors could otherwise secure on their own. Marketplaces like SkillPatron must also provide a user experience that is above and beyond what buyers get from dealing with individual vendors. By “user experience,” we mean not simply the scale of offerings or the range of amenities and features, but the total experience: how interactive it is; how much buyers enjoy shopping; how indispensable the marketplace becomes to them; and how valuable it is in helping them perform their work and accomplish their goals.
 
Much like online B2C marketplaces counterparts, SkillPatron offers access to a broad pool of potential vendors operating under a wide range of business models, including not only the obscure and potentially risky operators of the past, but also high-quality, prescreened vendors. And their value to buyers extends much further, to customization, dynamic pricing, and indirect-spend management and control—important factors even for sophisticated procurement functions. Perhaps most important, they can free procurement teams from time-consuming, often repetitive, transactional work that fails to take full advantage of their more advanced capabilities. When part of a broader procurement system that includes such elements as shared services or digitized sourcing, marketplaces free up procurement teams to place more focus on value-adding activities, such as strategic purchase categories, innovation, and sustainability.

As a relatively new phenomenon, how marketplaces like SkillPatron will evolve—and their impact and implications—remains to be seen. What purchasing executives need to understand now is their potential effect on the procurement function and the role of the CPO—and, more broadly, on the supply chain and spot markets. In this early stage, leaders may have fewer answers to guide them, but knowing which questions to ask can help better prepare them to capture maximum strategic advantage.

Albert Keronye, Country Manager for SkillPatron in Kenya says: “After the success of launching SkillPatron in Lagos, Nigeria in 2018, we’re delighted to be offering services to even more customers across the African continent. We take pride in helping local communities by ensuring  service providers share their skills with corporate procurement departments who need their offerings.”

SkillPatron was incorporated  by Jake Adebayo in April 2018 and since then, has continued with its mission to make everyday life easier for everyday people and corporate procurement departments . With service offering  pricing starting from just $3, SkillPatron provides affordable options for people and corporate procurement departments seeking help with projects of all sizes. Services can be booked with both in-store and online purchases at: https://skillpatron.com/services/.

With a growing portfolio of over 3 million users, the startup, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, has transformed corporate procurement service bookings by using proprietary digital cloud-based solutions to create a singular platform enabling comprehensive access to every specialty providers.


The zeal to create a transforming experience for online corporate procurement access across its existing footprint and new markets has always concerned SkillPatron.

 SkillPatron already arms more than 500 of the world’s most forward-thinking brands and agencies with the creative insights they need to make transformative business decisions.

 Since SkillPatron first launched, we’ve been honoured and impressed by the level of positive response from people using SkillPatron’s project management network to get help with their everyday business and personal procurement tasks - says Yukiko Ugboaja.

SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service sets a new mark for making hiring a private chef easy, affordable & healthier.

SkillPatron.com - The online marketplace for outsourcing services in Africa was founded and funded by British-born Nigerian tech entrepreneur Jake Adebayo.

SkillPatron  is introducing a personal private chef for hire service for homes, restaurants, in Lagos, Abuja & Port-harcourt. The service, now available to SkillPatron members, is an expansion of the existing Personal Chef for Hire service, originally aimed at new mothers; yet as of today, SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service works with a wide range of business clients mainly in the food service, hotel, retail, logistics, warehouse, and experiential marketing spaces.

In Nigeria the idea of having a private chef in Lagos, Abuja or Port-harcourt might seem like one that's limited to the elites and old money upper class families, but a new food and technology service from SkillPatron is aiming to change that.  SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service vets everyone from credentialed culinary professionals with years of restaurant experience to self-taught cooks. Once they pass the culinary assessment, chefs are given access to an exclusive clientele full of hungry foodies looking for a personal dining experience.

SkillPatron’s private chef services cater to all types of food lovers: folks looking to take private cooking classes, managers interested in a unique twist on office catering, couples wanting to host intimate dinner parties, or even brand-new parents that are simply too exhausted to cook.

SkillPatron soft-launched it’s personal chef services in January of last year, and has been taking bookings in Lagos, Abuja and Port-harcourt ever since. Eventually, they hope to offer private chef for hire services in every major city in Africa.

At inception Jake Adebayo & Chef Tony wanted to create an outlet for private chefs to access clients interested in a unique, personal and slightly indulgent dining experience, and did so by melding their backgrounds in both technology and restaurants respectively.
The result? A personal and private chef for hire service that not only helps hungry food lovers who are willing to pay for authentic cuisine connect with talented chefs, but also serves those with a passion for cooking.

As an example Yetunde Buhari, an advertising professional who gave up her career to learn the art of Asian cooking. Yetunde didn’t go to culinary school, and cooking for a living was just a pipe dream until she started working with SkillPatron’s private chef for hire service. Because she is skilled in the kitchen, she’s now able to make money doing the work she loves even though she didn’t have previous professional experience.

You can think of SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service as a Couchsurfing.org or Airbnb for foodies. To book a chef, fill out some basic information on the SkillPatron site: your location, expected cooking date for culinary assessment, range of meal preferences, number of guests and price range. The site will then generate a list of chefs, their availability and their menus for you to choose from. The final step: Enjoy a tasty meal cooked in your own home (or office — or whatever locale you choose) while you entertain your friends. The bill for SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service bookings includes the tip, ingredients and clean-up, and prices range widely depending on the type of meal, the chef and intricacy of the menu you choose.

For example, a three-course date night cooking class and meal for two can cost around N30,000, while a brunch for 10 can total as low as N98500. So while it’s not necessarily a cheaper option than eating out, the price is comparable while you eat in the comfort of your own home.

SkillPatron currently tries out the chefs’ fare before they’re allowed to book clients on using our site, but as the business grows, it’ll have to hand off some of the vetting to a more seamless procedure.

SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service is moving towards more of a peer review system for chefs, but still does a weekly lunch at SkillPatron’s Ikoyi, Lagos office where five to eight chefs show up, make something delicious, and then sit down to share it with the other chefs and the SkillPatron team. At the moment SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service has put hundreds of chefs online, but mentions it has a backlog of thousands of chefs.

For SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service of course, it's not just about the meals but also about creating a unique shared experience. SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service isn’t just for engaging chefs for private homes as on the the busiest nights, a typical restaurant can’t afford to even lose a dishwasher to getting sick or not being around — or simply ghosting on the company — and end up frustrating the whole experience for the rest of the staff and restaurant goers.

It’s a problem SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service crew was acutely familiar with during their recruitment for their first set of enterprise clients including: Ocean Basket, Sailors Lounge, Indomie Kitchen, Farm City and more and it’s why Jake Adebayo and Chef Tony — who didn’t really have much experience other than delivering Chinese food in high school, but wanted to get into the industry — started SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service. SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service also essentially serves as an on-demand tool for restaurant workers, who might find themselves already working across multiple different jobs or multiple different restaurants and are looking for a lifestyle over which they have some more control.

SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service largely focuses on back-of-the-house operations like line cooks, prep cooks, and dishwashers, though it could theoretically extend to any part of the restaurant experience. Restaurants go to the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service page and say they are looking for whatever role they need, and are able to book the employee right away for the slot they have in their schedule. It might come at a slight premium over the typical hire, but restaurants are already willing to pay overtime in order to cover those gaps and keep things moving smoothly, Jake Adebayo said.
For employees on the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service, it’s a pretty similar experience — they see a job posted on the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service web portal, with a time slot, and they make themselves available for an hourly wage. The second benefit of SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service to eligible chefs and cooks,Jake Adebayo said, is that they can start to slowly make a name for themselves if they are able to prove out their skills and move up the ranks at any of those restaurants we get to place them in. From SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service started Jake Adebayo notes the culinary community is a small one, he said, and it offers a lot of room to start building up a reputation as an exceptional chef or just finally get a first shot at a sauté position in the kitchen after working at the back of the house. That, too, might be part of the appeal of jumping on a service like SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service rather than just driving for Uber or Bolt.

On the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service platform, every shift and rating you get, every connection you get in the industry — and it’s a very tight network — you build up your own reputation or identity, Jake Adebayo said.  At SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service we’re helping chefs & cooks build up, it’s more like a race to the top than a race to the bottom. With SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service they typically start off as a prep cook, and they start getting offers for line cook positions.

And like Uber or Airbnb, that flexibility is one of the more critical selling points of the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service. A line cook might want to spend some time in Abuja to learn the scene there, and with a service like SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire platform, they can get access to some potential openings at restaurants in the area. As their experience — and their reputation — builds up over time, Jake Adebayo hopes SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service gets known as a launching point for many careers, in addition to just offering restaurant workers a more flexible lifestyle.
Today, SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service works with a wide range of business clients mainly in the food service, hotel, retail, logistics, warehouse, and experiential marketing spaces, Jake Adebayo said. Interestingly, it’s also been approached by Jumia to use the platform but currently does not provide drivers among its staff,  Chef Tony & Jake Adebayo said.

As is feedback from early adopters of the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service there has been some scrutiny around how thorough background and credit checks are sometimes for chefs and cooks recruited. In the case of SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service, the company goes through its own set of qualification and vetting checks, which also change over time as businesses and regular clients rate employees after each culinary assessment works that ultimately result in reliability scores for workers.

On top of those checks, SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service  also handles weekly payments to Specialists as well as their benefits: Jake Adebayo said that the company is compliant with the Affordable Care Act and insured with the appropriate worker’s compensation policies.

Almost five years ago nobody had a personal driver, and now we have Uber, Bolt & a sleuth of other cab hailing apps. Why can’t we do that with personal chefs?” That’s the question that prompted Jake Adebayo & Chef Tony to start SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service ; a web platform which connects professional chefs with individuals who can’t — or don’t want to — cook.

Time-pinched customers can head to the SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service  website (they eventually plan to build out an app), select a chef from its directory, and negotiate a price. SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service  envisions a variety of use cases where chefs do everything from weekly meal prep for clients to catering larger-scale dinner parties. “We want to make this an everyday lifestyle choice,” said Jake Adebayo.

Of course, Jake Adebayo & Chef Tony are aware the concept of hiring personal chefs or booking private chefs is nothing new. Aside SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service there are plenty of other websites offering lists of local culinary professionals, ready to come and cook for you or your group. What distinguishes SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service is its attempt to uber-ize personal chefs selection — that is, to make it affordable, convenient, and millennial-friendly. “Meal kits don’t do it all for you, and restaurants can be expensive and unhealthy,” said Jake Adebayo. SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service  is trying to hit the sweet spot right in the middle, capitalizing off of two trends we’ve seen in millennial dining habits: convenience and healthy eating.

At the moment SkillPatron’s personal & private chef for hire service is in its initial stages, and there’s plenty of time for it’s prices to come down plus, since the rates are negotiable, chefs might be amenable to some price haggling. But still — those numbers make the idea of hiring a private chef, which is already a semi-tough sell for millennials in Africa who are used to ordering super convenient delivery while bingeing Netflix, a tougher pill to swallow.