By Nesrin Ramsees
“Forget about traffic and queues and get rid of bribery” was Hokoma Delivery and Baseeta’s slogan in offering their services to Egyptians. These services focus on finishing all legal procedures for clients and save time wasted in queues in governmental institutions due to bureaucracy.
Hokoma Delivery CEO Zarif Mohamed said that most public services depend on bribery, and it causes the old, the disabled, and employees to spend hours in queues waiting to finish their procedures and official papers.
Mohamed added that Hokoma Delivery plans to offer more services that concern citizens and ease the pressure off traffic and employees, as well as limit youth unemployment. Such services have gained the necessary licences from public entities to ensure customers’ trust.
Hokoma Delivery targets employing commerce graduates because they have the required knowledge of the legal procedures needed by the different public service entities. The company also hires graduates with other qualifications inside it.
“Hokoma Delivery’s employees offer the service to the citizen where he is. The employee goes to where the client is to save time and effort. The procedure does not require an authorisation from the client because the employee takes the documents that need to be finished in return for the endorsement of the client,” he said.
Mohamed confirmed that the company had strong demand from clients especially due to the current situation of the country. The service saves the client the effort of going in person and standing in queues that never end. He added that such services fight bribery and unemployment among the youth.
Hokoma Delivery has approximately 65 employees and targets providing 3,000 job opportunities by mid-2016. It also targets to hire 13,000 young people within the next five years, as per its strategic plan.
He declared that Hokoma Delivery employees are given training until they gain the knowledge to deal with all the legal procedures and issues they can face, in addition to how to deal with clients.
Mohamed added that the company’s legal situation has settled and it is registered as per Decree 1551/2008, and the necessary licences were obtained for working in Egypt.
According to Mohamed, six months ago, Hokoma Delivery started working in Greater Cairo and some villages. It targets expanding in all Egypt’s governorates, especially Alexandria. He added that the company aims at being a model to be followed and to create a huge database of clients. Many clients were introduced to the company through Facebook.
Mohamed said that Hokoma Delivery is different from similar websites, as the client can take a look at all the company’s official documents. He also only takes on employees with good knowledge of the legal procedures.
As for the challenges facing Hokoma Delivery, Mohamed said that some government employees push citizens into not dealing with the company, on the pretext that the company is illegal and may Mohamed them.
Mohamed also talked of one of the more amusing situations Hokoma Delivery faced – as the company finished the legal procedures for a customer, which cost EGP 50, while the customer insisted to pay EGP 500. When the company refused to take the money, the customer went to the security and filed complaint against the company. After he learnt the value of such services, he apologised to the team.
Mohamed believes that investing in the field of services is valuable and can be used in eliminating several problems affecting society in Egypt, the most important of which are unemployment and corruption. He asserted that the circumstances Egypt is currently experiencing do not make the government focus on such services.
He explained that Hokoma Delivery is currently offering around 790 different governmental services, covering all aspects including certificates, licences, registrations, and targets increasing them to 250,000 services between August and October. The company targets also attracting 2-5 million customers by the end of this year.
Mohamed pointed out that the profit margin of each service varies between EGP 3 to EGP 25, in addition to transport costs. He added that the company seeks to launch an advertising campaign through social networks by the end of this year. The campaign will be in conjunction with launching the company’s application for Android operating system. Moreover, Hokoma Delivery launched a free hotline, through which customers can contact the customer service department with inquiries.
In this context, Eslam Danbel, lawyer and legal consultant of Baseeta, asserted that the project’s idea mainly aims to serve citizens. Baseeta, which covers the same ground as Hokoma Delivery, aims to act as a conduit for citizens to complete government services at little cost to the customer.
Regarding the competitive factor, Danbel said there are similar companies in the market, which allows all the companies to race to provide the best for the customer. However, the market is still at an early stage, which makes the competition healthy. Danbel added that every company has its own strategy and tactic, which distinguishes it from its competitors, and asserted that Baseeta is characterised by its transparency and the credibility it offers its customers.
Danbel said Baseta agents undertake constant training to qualify them for the market, notably in how to deal with all legal procedures, security, and the problems they may face.
As for the challenges Baseeta faces, he asserted that the service is still unknown to many customers. Danbel demanded the concerned ministries widen the field of competition for governmental services, and urge the citizens to use them.
He also demanded that the traffic department cooperate with Baseeta in offering traffic solutions to the citizens, expressing his desire also to cooperate with the Ministry of Health in offering services to register newborns. He explained that Baseeta offers its services to Egyptians inside and outside the country, except for passport services.
He disclosed that Baseeta has a plan to launch advertisement campaigns through social networks, in addition to advertisements through visual and auditory media.
