Fort Worth Nonprofit Launches Remote Work Program in Africa

Philip is an applied technology student in Nigeria, studying system administration and databases, and one of the first candidates in the Remote Ready Program, run by SankoLabs, a Fort Worth nonprofit that prepares young Africans for global remote work. The program has been running cohorts since August. This month it opens to talent platforms and employers beyond its first referral partner. SankoLabs runs two programs: the four-week Remote Ready Program for adults referred by talent platforms and hiring companies, and an eight-week Youth Bootcamp for ages 16 to 18. The first adult intake drew 42 applications in under 24 hours.

The gap SankoLabs is built for is not a training shortage. Nigeria's national digital skills program has put more than 135,000 people through training, and Nigerian training partners delivering it have said publicly that placement is happening on paper more than in practice. Meanwhile, between 30 and 60 percent of offshore remote hires do not survive their probation period, and the agencies tracking those outcomes are explicit that it is usually not a technical ability problem.

Two Founders, One Mission

Michael Omokoh, Co-Founder and CEO, lives in Fort Worth, holds an MSBA from Purdue University, and owns the technology, partnerships, and fundraising. He built the SankoLabs platform himself. He grew up in Nigeria and spent two years doing volunteer service in Ghana.

Peter Sey, Co-Founder and COO, lives in Pocatello, Idaho, holds an MBA from Idaho State University, and owns the curriculum, the cohorts, and the relationships on the ground. He grew up in Ghana and spent his own two years of volunteer service in Nigeria.

They met in Ghana more than a decade ago. Michael went home to Nigeria, then to BYU-Idaho. Peter Sey made the same journey years later, and they have stayed in touch throughout.

Success is preparation meeting luck," Michael says. "In Africa we want the luck. We want the good job, the good outcome for our families, the chance to give something back. What I kept seeing is that the opportunity comes and we cannot take it, because we were not prepared for it.

Ghana is my home. Nigeria is my home," Peter Sey says. "We didn't choose these countries because of market research. The right preparation at the right time changes everything, and what was missing was a way to show it. A candidate who is ready should be able to prove it, and the company hiring them should be able to see that before they take the risk.

Sankofa is an Akan word meaning go back and get it. The name was chosen deliberately: the capability already exists, and the work is making it visible.

The Readiness Gap

The failure modes are specific, and they repeat.

Candidates across the continent are often taught to write long, thorough CVs. That serves them well in academic and public-sector hiring at home. It reads as noise to a recruiter scanning for signal. They under-communicate progress and blockers in their first weeks, leaving a manager guessing. They wait to be onboarded rather than driving their own onboarding. None of it is a skills deficit, and all of it gets read as one.

If you told me right now you had ten people ready to go, I would talk price and take them, because I need ten people right now."

• A US talent platform CEO and early SankoLabs partner

The demand is already there. The proof is what is missing.

The Remote Ready Program

SankoLabs Academy is now running the Remote Ready Program: four weeks, for adults referred by talent platforms and hiring companies. Mostly asynchronous, with one live call each week.

The core of it is the Remote Readiness Simulation, a single instrument run twice. Once at intake, before any instruction, to establish where a candidate actually stands. Once again near the end, against the same rubric. The distance between those two runs is what SankoLabs hands back to a partner.

The rubric covers what remote teams actually break on: asynchronous written communication, professional digital presence, fluency in the everyday remote toolset, time zone and availability discipline, and working independently without close supervision. It is role-agnostic by design, the same core whether a candidate is heading into sales, support, or design.

That ordering makes SankoLabs less a training provider that also assesses than an assessment instrument with training attached.

Two cohorts are running now: Cohort Asaawa, the inaugural group, and Cohort Nkiru, made up of candidates referred by an early talent partner.

I had heard of Notion. I had heard of Trello. I had never used them," Philip says. "What mattered was using them with intention, knowing what problem you are solving, not just being able to name the tool.

Graduates leave with an evidence bundle built backwards from what employers actually screen on. An optimized LinkedIn profile. A short recorded introduction. A written work artifact and a process artifact, both graded. A recorded mock interview. A structured availability statement naming their working hours in their own time zone. And the simulation report.

What they do not leave with is a job offer, and Michael is blunt about it.

We are not a placement company. We do not find you the work," he says. "We get you ready for it, and we give you the evidence so you can go and get it yourself. Those are different businesses, and people confuse them all the time.

Starting in Ghana and Nigeria: the Youth Bootcamp

SankoLabs is building an eight-week Youth Bootcamp for ages 16 to 18 in Ghana and Nigeria, phone-first for the first cohort, because that is how these students actually reach the internet.

The Remote Ready Program solves today's problem," Michael says. "The Youth Bootcamp means the next generation does not inherit it.

The need is not hypothetical. Roughly 35 percent of adults in Nigeria and 28 percent in Ghana have basic digital skills, and the picture is similar across much of the continent. When SankoLabs opened its first adult intake, one of the applicants was 17 and had to be routed to the youth track instead. That is the gap the Youth Bootcamp exists to close before it forms.

What's Next

SankoLabs is open to talent platforms, staffing firms, and companies hiring remotely who want a screened shortlist with documented evidence behind it rather than a stack of CVs. Partner enquiries: https://www.sankolabs.com/partners

The Youth Bootcamp is funded by donors rather than by the students it serves. Contributions fund curriculum, data stipends, and mentorship: https://www.sankolabs.com/#support

The talent was never the question," Michael says. "The proof was. That is the part we built.

About SankoLabs

SankoLabs equips young Africans with the readiness, professional identity, and evidence they need to compete for global remote work. It runs two programs: the Remote Ready Program for adults and an eight-week Youth Bootcamp for ages 16 to 18, starting in Ghana and Nigeria. More at sankolabs.com.

SankoLabs is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. EIN 42-2414788. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Media Contact

Michael Omokoh Co-Founder and CEO, SankoLabs Email Contact