A mobile and web-based directory service, QuickHelp Nigeria that assists people to locate businesses around them seamlessly and effortlessly has berthed in Nigeria.
Speaking at the inauguration at Civil Hive, Yaba, Lagos recently, Tosin Odubela, CEO and Team Lead, said QuickHelp also provides additional services such as airtime credit, ticketing, taxi or bike hiring services.
According to Odubela, QuickHelp, which has been operational for two years, has secured a merger/acquisition deal with 1001 Squared AI Global (Canada) and leverages on Artificial Intelligence (AI) temchnology to provide these services.
Odubela said, “While QuickHelp seems to be like Nigeria’s version of Google, it could do better than Google functions because it is localised to the country’s terrains and situations because it gives everyone, like the SMEs a chance and a lot of exposure, with everybody happy, unlike the others that give only a few.”
He explained: QuickHelp can rapidly help boost businesses. Premium business entries enjoy instant notification of service requests, advert opportunities on the SMS platform, on the website or on the mobile app.
“QuickHelp is designed to get businesses discovered and rapidly help gain traction! The QuickHelp database of artisans, SMEs and company profiles is always updated, so you are armed with the desired business contact. Moreover, you can jump in and become listed by just trying ‘I want to register my business.’”
Listing additional services, he said QuickHelp provides instant job opportunities for prospective QuickHelp Community Directory Manager, who oversees the businesses within a radius of five kilometres from their registered contact address.
“QuickHelp,” he said “offers pre-paid benefits too, for premium end-users, like being able to make a request without having airtime, while also providing voice and logistics support within the target community for premium users of the platform.
He said the company plans to operate in the three major languages of the country, and has therefore, contacted linguists to design a text-to-speech in indigenous languages, to be able to capture a larger clientele.
In response to how much acceptability it has attracted from the organised private sector, Odubela said, while some companies in the country have not yet seen the opportunity offered by artificial intelligence, some banks have, however, embraced QuickHelp. “UBA and Diamond Banks have latched onto our services,” he said.
Odubela also explained its association with 1001 Squared AI Global (Canada). “We are an arm of 1001Squared AI Nigeria, which is a social enterprise with the goal to facilitate and advance the use of artificial intelligence applications to enhance and improve the quality of education, especially in under-privileged and under-served areas of the world.”
He enthused: “With our deal with 1001 Squared AI Global we’ve got enough to make us change the world! Quick Help could become the Google of Nigeria and indeed Africa because we have been mandated by 1001 Squared AI Global to spread to other countries in the African continent.”
