Bongo launches price transparency platform amid rising food costs

Nigerian food commerce startup Bango has launched Shopr by Bango, a new price transparency platform designed to help consumers compare food prices and connect with verified sellers, as households continue to grapple with rising food costs and uneven market pricing across the country.

The platform expands Bango’s community-driven pricing model, which allows users to share real-time prices of staple food items from markets across Nigeria.

By aggregating pricing information directly from buyers and sellers, the startup aims to reduce information gaps that often leave consumers paying widely varying prices for the same products.

According to the company, Shopr by Bango goes beyond price comparison by enabling users to identify trusted suppliers and purchase food items at competitive prices, creating what it describes as a more efficient food commerce ecosystem for households, retailers, and bulk buyers.

“Food pricing in Nigeria remains highly fragmented, and many consumers lack access to reliable information before making purchasing decisions. Our goal is to simplify how people discover fair prices while improving access to trusted sellers and suppliers,” Caleb Adenegan, co-founder of Bango, said.

According to him, the platform currently focuses on major household staples and fresh food commodities, with initial operations centred in Abuja while the company strengthens its logistics and supply coordination ahead of expansion into other markets.

Bango also unveiled plans for Bango Market Day, an initiative that seeks to aggregate consumer demand to facilitate bulk purchases directly from farmers, producers and distributors. The startup said the model could lower food costs for consumers while improving market access for suppliers.

The launch comes at a time when Nigeria continues to battle elevated food inflation, with consumers facing sharp price variations for essential commodities across different markets.

The lack of transparent pricing has increasingly become a concern for households and small businesses, prompting calls for greater accountability within the food distribution chain.

In response to concerns over exploitative pricing practices, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) had earlier deployed operatives to formal and informal markets across the country, including Abuja, Lagos and Rivers states, to investigate alleged price-fixing, unfair inflation of food prices and anti-competitive market practices.

The commission said it is targeting market associations and cartels accused of preventing farmers from selling directly to consumers, fixing commodity prices and restricting market access for traders. It has also warned that it will not tolerate the continued increase in prices of goods, describing the trend as unfair to consumers.

The technology-enabled platforms such as Shopr could complement regulatory efforts by improving market transparency and giving consumers access to verified price information before making purchasing decisions.

As it scales operations, Bango said it will continue investing in price verification, supplier partnerships and logistics infrastructure, with the long-term goal of building a more transparent and efficient food commerce ecosystem across Nigeria.