The term, ‘personal assistant’ has for many years been one of the most popular in the Nigerian work scene. Busy professionals who are saddled with a lot of responsibilities, from attending to clients to managing staff, sending emails, preparing documents and lots more, resort to Personal Assistants to hep ease off the work load.
Independent Personal Assistant (iPA) is redefining the personal assistant role we used to know.
Founded in January 2016 by Ibukun Akinnawo, iPA is an agency that provides skilled virtual assistants to entrepreneurs, professionals, executives and small teams across the globe. These virtual assistants provide administrative and technical support, helping clients manage their emails, calendar, organize their travel, events, manage their projects, do some research, business writing for them, and more. According to the team, “think of us as your very own Personal Assistant to handle time consuming tasks”.
For its service, iPA fee charges monthly a fee, which comes in different packages that can be selected based on the needs of a client. To subscribe to the service, all a user needs is to sign up and reach out to the iPA team.
One would wonder why iPA is offering virtual rather than physical assistants, Ibukun states, “it’s more expensive to hire a competent physical assistant than a competent virtual assistant at iPA. Virtual assistants are a lot cheaper in the long run.”
“Executives pay for specific tasks to be completed in a set number of hours, and using iPA means that they don’t have to worry about overhead costs such as insurance, bonuses, vacation pay and training. Additionally, the clients don’t pay for the software, hardware and Internet connection needed for the virtual assistants to get their work done.”
Remote work is gradually making its stay in Nigeria. With more and more organisations hriring virtual workers, iPA’s offering is coming in good time. It’s service has the potential to further make the concept of remote work even more popular in the country.
