Navigating Africa’s Supply Chain: A Look at Logistics Infrastructure in Africa.

From Producers 📦 to final consumer 🍜 innit?

May 20, 2023

Hello 🤗 Innovators,

We are always excited to take a flight to your inbox and when we touch down, we always come bearing gifts.

You never know what trick we have up our sleeves (LOL). It could be innovation as per usual, or it could be new features and sections, but all I’m still permitted to do for now is to create anticipation 🤗.

So… Anticipate 🥁🥁.

To state the obvious once again, it’s Saturday and it’s Consonance Club o’clock.

As promised in our midweek check-ins, we’ll be talking about logistic companies. Logistic companies are companies that deliver products through the supply chain from the producer down to the final consumer.

We’ll discuss innovative logistics solutions/companies making waves globally and internationally. It is also important to note that some commutation companies we discussed at the beginning of the month also deliver products to users.

Transportation companies like Safeboda and Bolt, but today we’ll be looking at purely product transportation companies. Once again this is especially for innovators in the logistics space.

Before starting with the day's business, shall we take a quick look at a meme from Tech Twitter?

Yes, we shall. Here you go…

😂🤣🤣

And just when we were about to start minding our business for real, the streets called and it was too tempting to ignore.

So…

Take one 😂🤣

DHL Logistics

This one has got to be as old as time. Oya you don catch me ✋🏽🤚🏽. Maybe that was too much of a hyperbole, but you know what I’m driving 🚘 at.

There was a time when DHL was the only choice an international merchant had, but over the years they have garnered a good number of competitors simply through the wonders of the business world.

DHL has it all. They offer air, ocean, road, and rail freight, so here’s the thing; how many companies are willing to cross the ocean and back for you? Do you know any willing to fly almost to the moon and back for you? Of course, they remember to take your money with them as they fly ✈ and sail ⛵. Your money makes the trip possible, how about that?😂🤣. But since we are giving flowers, we might as well see it through.

So…

They’ve been running through the jungle, with the wolves, through the darkest alleys, and saw the dark side of the moon to get to you 🎵🎶🎵 (Oya enough of the Selena Gomez-inspired writings- let’s do this right!)

They’ve been running through the jungle (LOL) for 53 years, since their founding on the 25th of December 1969. When Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom, and Robert Lynn founded DHL in 1969, they didn't know they would revolutionize the world of logistics. Now DHL is in every corner you look 👀 and everywhere you turn for fresh air.

Today, DHL is the world's leading logistics company. With 395,000 people in over 220 countries and territories worldwide, there’s no way they could miss Africa or so the facts say. DHL has been at the forefront of making delivery dreams come through and for a long time too.

Over 50 years of experience might be the “Eureka” moment of any board of interviewers, but it seems as a matter of fact that might not be the secret. While that is impressive for any resume the “innovative technology” is the bomb 💣.

Innovators come closer 🙏🏽 because you don’t catch this once. Long-term success is driven by leveraging the power of your innovative solutions and evolving down the years.

HEROSHE

If every single customer had to pass through the customs duties, provide papers, and meet requirements themselves you can imagine what a mess and imbalance that could cause.

It makes sense when thousands of people can get solutions through one company because basically, they do the heavy lifting so you don’t have to. That is simply why we have heroes like HEROSHE to take the stress of deliveries off our plates. First things first WHAT IS HEROSHE?

Heroshe was founded with a desire to serve people. Since its launch in 2019, Heroshe has been connecting small businesses in Africa with the quality products they deserve at shipping prices they can afford. They offer timely and stress-free shipping solutions from the USA to Nigeria and Ghana. Talk of navigating Africa’s supply chain right?

Timely and stress-free are relative, but we have to give credit where it is due that these companies prefer solutions to issues that used to keep consumers up at night.

With Heroshe, you can do three major things. You can use Heroshe’s address, track your shipments and deliver anywhere you want in the world. What a big flex! Let’s say you live in an unmapped area 🤔 or you don’t have an address 🤷🏽‍♀️, then look no further. Do you also need to know where exactly your package is during the whole process? Just open your Heroshe app to stop having to guess its whereabouts.

You should also quit having to pay through the nose to receive your package. Heroshe removes the barriers causing expensive shipping or the inability to ship products to the destinations. (Innovators should stop making customers have to pay through the nose too)

There are on a mission to improve lives by opening access to global commerce. Global commerce is a big dream on a big scale, if you asked me. Heroshe has also been so transparent about how they plan to achieve these and again, it emphasizes the power of innovation.

Innovator Of The Week

Motelejesu OLAWALE-JIMOH

Motelejesu popularly known as Tele is the Co-founder and CEO of TaskHaven.

What is TaskHaven?

TaskHaven is an online marketplace for local services. This means that through their mobile-first platform, you can book the service of artisans and even less skill-requiring services and replace your involvement in physical labor.

You could hire a painter, carpenter, errand person, masseuse, or even a personal chef, at your convenience. The Innovation called TaskHaven was inspired by the coming together of different events and trends.

MoteleJesu observed the need for a micro-job fulfillment platform with a couple of his friends. An example is wanting to quickly iron press already washed clothes but still not wanting to do it yourself.

After this discovery, he began to talk about it more often, with potential customers, as well as software engineers, and a lot of the feedback suggested it was a really good idea. The brainstorming process started and it became clearer that only two of of the team would be able to work on it in the beginning, but he didn’t let this deter him.

He firmly believes that no amount of experience you might have had in other fields could adequately prepare you for the things you'll experience while building an innovative solution.

Here’s what he has to say to aspiring innovators: “Getting validation is good though, and nowadays, I'm getting more biased towards a 'marketing before product' approach, to give yourself the best chance of moving fast and gaining momentum, both of which your startup will need.”

Download the TaskHaven app today!

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