The importance of technology cannot be over-emphasized. It has changed every aspect of our lives. Take a look at the business world. The ways businesses are conducted have changed. You don’t need to go to a physical store to purchase an item.
This has been made possible by e-commerce platforms. They are now commonplace. They house a variety of goods, and even go one step further to deliver goods bought by customers.
Platforms such as Kaymu provide an avenue for businesses to showcase their products while they handle logistics, payments and what have you.
This has helped these businesses, which are mostly owned by individuals, to showcase their products to the world, drive sales and boost the economy.
I have taken time to scour these e-commerce platforms and all I see are foreign goods. Well, Nigerians have a high taste for foreign goods but are we doing our local manufacturing industries any good?
Of course we are not!
Someone has seen the dangers inherent in not showcasing “Made in Nigeria” goods and have come up with a platform to help in this regard. The platform is Cokodeal!
Cokodeal is an e-commerce firm for not only locally produced goods but also manufactured goods, textiles, agricultural products and crafts in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
Through Cokodeal, individuals and/or small businesses that locally manufacture/produce items such as shoes, bags, plastics, furniture frames, leather works and hides, and even farm produce such as cocoa and raw foods can showcase their wares to potential buyers both in Nigeria and overseas.
I’m not really versed in economics and financial matters but I know it makes a lot of business and economic sense if a buyer from Britain buys locally made goods in Nigeria. This is what Cokodeal.com can do!
In a bid to make these small businesses key into its offering and become successful and profitable, Cokodeal has begun collaborations with organizations such as Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industries and Nigeria Export and Import Bank.
The partnership will also provide Cokodeal with the local knowledge support to help reach members of the organizations, thereby tackling the problem associated with finding businesses across Nigeria.
Knowing that transportation of goods from the point of manufacture to the point of sale is a problem in Nigeria for various reasons, Cokodeal contracts third party logistics company to handle this and ensuring its clients get the best deals.
Through trade fairs, trade expos, exhibitions and trade event networks, Cokodeal.com helps its clients to understand what buyers are searching for, especially as it concerns quality of good and product packaging.
Aside from showcasing Made in Nigeria products to the world, Cokodeal hopes to absorb 10,000 unemployed youths into the workforce. How will this be done? It’s simple!
Firstly, youths are connected to factories and agricultural farms where jobs are in abundance. Secondly, these youths also act as factory agents, helping in creating free stores on Cokodeal, especially for factories that are not tech savvy.
Finally, Cokodeal is presently hiring youths across different region of each states to manage the region trade activities.
One amazing thing about Cokodeal is that sellers won’t require a middleman to sell their products. They simply sign up with Cokodeal and are contacted by buyers. They handle negotiations and fulfill orders (an escrow service will be launched soon).
Signing up on Cokodeal is free however sellers part with monthly subscriptions. This, and advertisements and agents, franchise and export brokerage, helps Cokodeal stay afloat.
In fact, through this basic revenue model, it hopes to achieve its projected financial plans of a yearly increase of 120%.
Cokodeal is always running and secure from cyber-attacks as a result of a robust software development team with over 11 years’ experience in the United Kingdom.
The platform is hosted on a private server with 99.99% uptime with an industry-certified standard socket layer technology for security and encryption of customers’ data.
Cokodeal, which has been described as Africa’s Alibaba for locally produced goods, was founded in 2012 in the United Kingdom. It was launched in 2014 in Lagos, Nigeria and now operates in Tanzania too.
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