By Jonah Nwokpoku

There is need for e-commerce operators in Nigeria to begin to think of global expansion in order to promote African made products, bridge the gap between the African market and its people in the Diaspora to directly impact the growth of the local economy.

This is according to Managing Director of Nigeria’s pioneer online marketplace, Gidimall.com, Osamede Evbakhavbokun.

e-commerce

Osamede, who stated this during an exclusive interview with Vanguard, said his Gidimall will be spearheading the move by commencing promotion of African made products to the European and American markets beginning from November this year.

According to Osamede, “This (move) is instructive because there is a need to project Africa in a right way. Over the next three months, we will be focusing on promoting made-in-Africa products overseas. Ecommerce in Nigeria is still growing. There has been a serious traction and growth in the sector. But we have yet to start seeing the kind of numbers that exist in the US and other developed markets. I think there is a need for e-commerce in Nigeria to begin to think global and not just Nigeria.”

He said breaking into international markets leveraging e-commerce has become imperative because African made products actually resonates well with a lot of Africans in the diaspora. He said: “There are two major needs in this market. For example, you have that guy in America who wants to send money home to his mother and he has to send it through John so that John goes to the market and buys the things he needs to buy for the mother. And then the rest is history of what is left of it. About 90 per cent of the time, people don’t get the actual value for the money they send home. And so when you promote made-in-Africa products and our African brands, these people in the diaspora, can actually shop for their relatives and family members at home directly using brands like Gidimall.com and it gets delivered directly to them.

“There are some of them who want to use made-in-Africa products and they want to buy things from Africa. They can then buy these items on Gidimall and have it shipped to them directly to their homes. This now bridges the gap between Africans in the diaspora and their local markets, so that they can feel at home away from home. There is also this Afro-centric effect where Africans in the diaspora are directly growing their local economies by patronising made-in-African goods coming from their home countries. It also means they are investing in their own people while growing their local economy.”

Gidimall.com, launched in 2012, is an online marketplace which provides a platform for buyers and sellers to interact in a trade process.

On the Gidimall platform, there is a buyer interface where people visit to have their shopping done and there is a seller interface where sellers can actually register, put up their products, manage their inventories, logistics and promotions.