There are no gainful employments in
Nigeria…
That’s no longer news; actually, a Primary 6 student is aware of that
fact. Despite these challenge, Nigeria youths are rising up to the challenge by
creating Jobs for ourselves. Following the recent world trend we are are
embracing E-Commerce. As beautiful as the concept of E-commerce is, certain
factors can serve as a hindrance to its growth in Nigeria vis-viz Africa. And
honestly, I am getting tired.
I decided to carry out a little
researched carried out in the Central Part of Lagos Mainland Surulere to be
precise, over 50 of the Online Stores within that area had a major challenge
with Logistics.
Before I share my own story, hear
is what I observed from other budding entrepreneurs like me.
One of the Business Owners I
interviewed simply known as Jude confessed that he couldn’t use courier
services because they are too expensive, he would rather get an in-house errand
personnel who makes the deliveries to several parts of Lagos. According to him,
after about 6 months, he discovered that majority of his customers complained
about the LATE delivery of items order for. This was because, although his in-house
errand personnel knew Lagos well, he couldn’t easily locate the Residence of
certain clients who live in secluded parts of Lagos. After 6 months, he
discovered that her client based reduced drastically.
Another Start Up entrepreneur who
has an Online Boutique complained that although she worked with a Courier
service, she realized that after 12 months, she couldn’t Break Even. Majority
of her Profit was being used to service the courier service, hereby affecting
other key areas of her online boutique.
Funke who is into printing also
complained that due to the nature of her Job, she has not been able to fully
expand. Because she can’t afford to tell her clients stories, she takes the
printed fliers, banners, business cards, magazines and stuffs, directly to the
customers herself. In doing this, her office operations are put on hold until
she returns. With the unpredictable nature of Lagos roads, she sometimes
doesn’t get back to the office that day.
After listening to the Logistics
Challenges faced by these persons, I knew that indeed there is a major problem.
On my part as Food Vendor, I discovered that I couldn’t effectively manage the
process of delivering food myself. My company bought a Bike and for a while it
seemed like all was good, but as we expanded I realized that we couldn’t get to
all our clients effectively. We needed more bikes; we also needed to improve on
our menu and many other things. Over time, I realize my business was losing
focus.
As I speak to you now, I really
don’t know the way forward.
