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| Francis Madojemu |
The founder of iBridge HUB in Ibadan, and the initiator of iCODE, Francis Madojemu, has stressed that the nation’s 2 online megastores, JUMIA Nigeria and Konga.com can help Nigerian start-ups and SMEs to grow. He said both platforms have sufficient capacity that start-ups can leverage on for growth.
According to him, both platforms have been able to overcome the trust challenge that was a major deterrent discouraging Nigerians from shopping online. He added that the megastores have the strong backbone to support features such as money back guarantee and free delivery to any part of Nigeria.
“They can deliver products nationwide, no start-up can do that,” he said.
He added that the level of security on both platforms is laudable and something that the start-ups do not have the technical capacity to support.
He stressed that Nigerian online shoppers are conscious of the kinds of transactions they do online and would not be willing to use their banking details on a platform they don’t trust.
“I buy things online but I don’t just enter my details anywhere or everywhere; like other online shoppers, I am very selective and I take security seriously. If an SME set up an online payment platform, I am not sure that everyone would rush to it and start entering their card details straightway,” he said.
He added that the mega platforms have avenues that start-ups can explore to take their products online and would be available to hundreds of thousands of online shoppers.
“The traffic on those sites can not paralleled by anyone set up by a startup. Why not just put your products there and let them take commission from the earnings you make. This is how businesses in their early phases can grow,” he said.
