E-Commerce Platform serving Remote Businesses
THE QUESTION
Can an ecommerce platform serve rural areas of Nigeria and enable farmers to source agricultural inputs to significantly improve their productivity?
LOCATION: Nigeria
SECTOR: Agriculture
TECH: Frontier Connectivity
TIMELINE: March 2019 - November 2020
PIONEER: Leanne Jones
PARTNERS: Konga
The Challenge
The agricultural sector provides livelihoods for about 70% of the rural population in Nigeria. Approximately 80% of these farmers are small-scale farmers who experience low productivity, which results in lower incomes. One of the key reasons for reduced yields is limited use of modern agricultural inputs.
The Idea
This pilot tested an e-commerce platform that would enable smallholder farms to purchase agricultural inputs online, which would in turn increase their yields and productivity. This model provided farmers in rural Nigeria with an easy to use e-commerce platform for purchasing and listing agricultural inputs and products, as well as providing logistics and a reliable payment solution.
The Journey
What we learned
The biggest challenge was onboarding the suppliers, as moving from physical to online sales was a big shift in their way of working. Additional difficulties in onboarding dealers included apathy and regulatory and organisational difficulties. The suppliers who did onboard realised the value of having an additional sales outlet online in a world where people are increasingly depending on mobile technologies.
We spent a lot of time planning the pilot to conduct a contained test and reduce risk. However, this planning took a very long time, and we feel that the same information could have been learned more quickly if the team had worked together to see what could be tested quickly and flexibly.
Sharing perspectives on what you want scale to look like early means that all of the partners involved have the same idea.
Crowdsourcing sector expertise early in the pilot speeds up learning. We boosted the team with an in-country independent consultant who was able to quickly shape key aspects of the model. If we had added the consultant earlier, they would have likely answered some of our questions earlier, leaving us with more time to question how the user experience could be further adapted to meet the needs of the agricultural sector.
All photos on this page were taken by the pilot’s implementing partner, Konga. What happened next?
The next steps for the pilot include understanding the demographics of those buying from the platform and whether they are indeed smallholder farmers (the target population). At the same time, more suppliers will be onboarded onto the platform to increase the location and product.
Read more
Explore the step-by-step journey and learnings of the pilot – Pilot Story
Learn about the pilot’s first sprint — “Unlocking agricultural input markets through e-commerce”
Read about the launch of the Konga website — “Will farmers and agro-dealers use an e-commerce platform to buy and sell agricultural inputs?”