₦airaland Forum

Nigerian startup FoodLocker, a farm produce and consumer goods aggregator for large buyers, is aiming to secure a sizeable slice of the US$300 billion Sub-Saharan African food market through its innovative and impactful platform.

Launched in December 2017, FoodLocker forecasts foodstuff demand through deep machine learning, thus enabling large-scale buyers to efficiently procure fast-moving consumer goods and fresh produce from smallholder farmers.

“Ours is a production management and a market access platform that supports smallholder farmers with inputs, credit and expertise with the objective of meeting the needs of large buyers. We operate a demand-first model that is supported by our demand-forecasting algorithm. We serve both B2B and B2C channels for strategic reasons,” Femi Aiki, chief executive officer (CEO) of FoodLocker told Disrupt Africa.

Having put together a team that has over 40 years of cumulative work experience with global brands such as Amazon, Bunnings, Unilever and Coca Cola, FoodLocker is targeting the US$60 billion market for food in Nigeria, and beyond that the US$300 billion pan-African market.

“That market is underserved in terms of affordability, availability, quality, and procurement efficiency,” said Aiki. “Supply-demand imbalances are huge across multiple value chains, and markets are fragmented and disorganised.”

As a result, uptake of the FoodLocker solution has been “very encouraging”.

“We serve customers in Lagos, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Port Harcourt, Warri and Abuja, and also France, the UK and the US. We have pan-African expansion plans along channels, markets, customer types, and products,” Aiki said.

The startup has also won a host of competitions and challenges, including the AgriPitch and Thrive Africa challenges, and has taken on small amounts of funding from investors including, among others, Founders Factory Africa.

“We are currently raising a seed round to support smallholder farmers in three value chains,” said Aiki.

FoodLocker monetises by selling farm produce and consumer goods to B2B and B2C customers.

“We also have new revenue streams that will come onstream for our technology products in 2021. We operate a profitable growth model and have been profitable a number of times on a monthly basis,” Aiki said. “We grew through COVID-19, and revenues are growing significantly month-to-month.”

The future certainly looks bright for this ambitious agri-tech company.

Ghanaian e-health startup mPharma has partnered Belayab Pharmaceuticals to launch Haltons Pharmacies via a franchise agreement in Ethiopia, making the country mPharma’s sixth African market.

mPharma is a technology-driven healthcare company that specialises in vendor-managed inventory, retail pharmacy operations, and market intelligence serving hospitals, pharmacies, and patients.

Founded in 2013, venture-backed, and headquartered in Ghana, it has expanded its operations to four other African countries, namely Nigeria, Zambia, Kenya, and Rwanda, and currently has a network of over 300 pharmacies serving more than 100,000 patients each month.

In 2019, mPharma acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain Haltons, and the new franchise agreement with Belayab will see Haltons launch in Ethiopia, mPharma’s sixth market in Sub-Saharan Africa and third in East Africa.

Through the franchise, mPharma and Belayab Pharmaceuticals will open two operational pharmacies in Addis Ababa this year. Each pharmacy launched will offer Mutti – mPharma’s health membership programme – to patients in Ethiopia. Patients will benefit from discounts on their drugs and financing options that can help alleviate the costs of healthcare. Mutti will particularly benefit uninsured patients in Ethiopia who pay out-of-pocket for their medication and therefore bear the brunt of high drug prices.

“mPharma is connecting and empowering an inclusive universal medical coverage that benefits everyone in Africa by making access to healthcare affordable and safe. We are excited to be entering the Ethiopian market in partnership with Belayab Pharmaceuticals as we continue to build our long-standing commitment to partnerships for the good health of patients,” said Gregory Rockson, chief executive officer (CEO) of mPharma.

“This is an opportunity to develop a commercially-sustainable and scalable health impact in Ethiopia by improving access to quality essential medicines that will help the society-at-large so that everyone can benefit from affordable and safe treatment.”

Pa3cia:
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ayoola560:
Do you have beef with Netflix?

The approach taken to create this fantasy world was: "What if Tolkien were black?". Just as Tolkien did, a lot of time was spent researching the mythologies and traditions of people, but in this case across the African continent. The result is seven "lineages", which are similar to fantasy "races" but more nuanced, with overlapping cultures and more fluid identities.

Many of the lore elements, including some crucial elements of the setting such as the conflict of lineages with slavery or the "Dwen" spirit-children, are inspired by diasporic experiences of black people both in the Americas and in Europe.

To make this fantasy world more authentic we have been in contact with experts such an Africa biologists for the various biomes and African elders for village lore.

We are sharing a free 300 page guide to the world of Wagadu, that be can directly downloaded here:

Once, when she attempted to report an incident of a white man openly m**turbating in her direction on the metro, the policeman’s response was simply: “Why are you so surprised? You look exotic, that's your problem to deal with." In another case, when searching for an apartment with her white Russian boyfriend, the couple routinely encountered posts that racially discriminated against prospective tenants. “It's really common to see this sort of thing,” Masha’s boyfriend explains. “One time, we went to see an apartment, which we didn't even like. But after we left, we looked at the same post again and it had a new description, saying that it was only available to Slavic renters.”

Roy lives in Bryansk, a city 380km (236 miles) south of Moscow, where he is not the only African student, but all of them, he says, experience similar racist treatment.

"That incident with the taxi - it happens a lot. I just decided to video it this time to show people. It's the same every time. It happens to my friends too, but they can't talk about it because they don't speak Russian.

"It was very hard to put up with every day, even though I went to one of the best schools in town, specialising in maths and physics. I couldn't stand up for myself there. I didn't tell my parents about it. My big brother protected me at school. Sometimes he had to get into fights for me."

Isabel dreamt about moving from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk to a place where she would be able to walk down the street without people looking at her. Both she and her Dominican dad were routinely stared at.

"When I moved to St Petersburg everything was so much better, I began to forget that I look different. But later, when I started work and needed to rent a flat, I felt the racism again."

'Slavs only'
It was particularly bad in Moscow, says Isabel. All the letting ads said "Slavs only".

"When landlords heard my name on the phone, even though I had a permit to live in Moscow, they didn't believe I could pay the rent. I had to arrange to meet them in person, so they could see I was a normal person with a normal job and wouldn't turn their apartment into a drug den.

"Whenever I meet new people, as soon as they relax the jokes start. I either ignore them or join in the banter, if I can see that it's just teasing. If you get angry every time it'll make you a nervous wreck."

wildikeman:
I'm begining not to trust these Netflix movies these days.