• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Kobo360 logistics plans to expand business presence in Ghana, Kenya

Kobo360

Kobo360, a technology logistics platform, has announced that it will expand operations into Accra, Ghana and Nairobi, Kenya.

This is following recent news that the company already launched in Lome, Togo – home to West Africa’s largest shipping port, and sees a period of rapid expansion for the African start-up.

Backed by international and African investors such as International Finance Corporation (IFC), Y Combinator and TLcom, the move is in line with Kobo360 plans to build a global logistic operating system (GLOS) that will power trade and commerce across Africa and other emerging markets.

Positioned as key trading and transport hubs on the African continent, the new territories have seen almost exclusively double-digit growth – Togo (12 percent), Kenya (10 percent) and Ghana (7.9 percent), and Kobo is now strategically positioned to grow with them.

In Nigeria, Kobo360 has stood at the forefront of logistics, covering over 80 percent of the country and recording a 40 percent cost reduction in the supply chain. The company now plans to aggressively extend to other key markets and expects to be in nine African countries before the end of 2019.

Speaking from the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Ife Oyedele, co-founder and CTO of Kobo360, said there is an estimation that Africa needs ten times the number of trucks to meet short-term commercial transport needs, since rail continues to underperform.

“Time, cost and quality are key drivers of success in logistics which is why we, at Kobo360, are building a global logistics operating system that will ensure fast movement of goods at a lower cost for businesses across Africa,” Oyedele said.

According to him, Kenya is the hub of East Africa; it is the most innovative market in technology, meaning that winning Kenya will enable the company to win across the East African region.

“From here, we will expand to Uganda and Tanzania. By adding Ghana to our West African territories of Togo and Nigeria, we will link all the market to a Global Logistics System and this will help us to serve our customers across a seamlessly lined Pan-African market. By this, we create value to our customers as we are in all the key countries in the continent,” he added.

Oyedele said that “location is a critical factor in global logistics, and each African country we have chosen to expand into has its own value proposition”. He added that these markets are among the fastest growing economies and Kobo360 wants to grow with them by supporting the thousands of freight companies who require a safe, reliable and cost effective delivery of their goods to cargo recipients across the continent.

Kobo360 has partnered with global logistics brands including Dangote Group, DHL, Unilever and Lafarge and has moved over 297M KG of goods, serviced over 1,450 businesses and aggregated a fleet of over 10,000 drivers and trucks. Launched in 2016, with a vision to revolutionise the logistics value chain in Africa, currently estimated at $150 billion, Kobo360 efficiently connects end-to-end haulage operations to help cargo owners, truck owners and drivers, and cargo recipients to achieve an efficient supply chain framework.

Kobo360’s officially launched in Togo in March, where the company announced its affiliation with the Ministry and Office of Postal Affairs and Digital Economy, as well as the Mediterranean Shipping Company. Kobo360 will officially launch in Ghana on 4 April, and in Kenya by May 2019.

It has also been nominated as ‘Disrupter of the Year’ finalists at the Africa CEO Forum Awards – a recognition given to the CEO of a young African company within the budding tech sector on the continent.

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE