[Music] that are critical to the success of your business
yeah and can be embedded on our platform yeah um you know to be able to help your day-to-day
operations of your business yeah and even what do you think your business is going to look like
yeah yeah two years in three years in five years so we want to be part of that transformational
Journey you know of how your business is going to look like in three four five years yeah um and
how does that impact your own personal life yeah um you
know and the reason why we're embedding
things like Insurance uh buy now pay later into the platform is to also uh you know enable access
to sure and success to finance you know um for this Merchant so that it can have an impact in
their life and also help pivot their business into the future um you know as the core um players in
the distribution space um people want to make sure that we are part of that transformational Journey
for the merchants so in this case not only Market Force that
grows but also the uses of Market Force
also grows with you so would you say you guys are going deep rather than a wider that is you're
not looking to scale so fast in 54 countries but you're looking to like if you get into a market
you're able to go to Tier Two Cities you know make sure that you go deep is that the strategy
yeah I think the formula is normally a mix of two because you can't go wide in a market before
you actually understand how the market behaves um I think as Tash mention
ed uh you know and as
everybody actually knows Nigeria is different from Kenya yeah different from Tanzania Tanzania
is different from Uganda there is similarities but even from a culture perspective from how
people just consume Goods yeah what is the trust level what's the penetration of Technology it's
always different so you always need to go into to a market you understand the market by going
deeper and then go wide with some depth yeah um yeah so I feel like in this case
you actually
have to do both yeah um you know but because to have impact also
you you have to be yeah wide so you guys met the president of Kenya uh what did you what
did you guys discuss I don't know if you are there but I saw this Chief is it oh well we're
discussing the future of retail we told him yes we need to we're talking about the
power of aggregation which is what we're doing uh before Merchants would need to close the shop go to the nearest market to find
products what we're basically saying
is we need to develop aggregation uh centers or platforms
yeah such as Market Force yeah uh where we can you know through which we can lower the cost of
uh distribution and as a result lower the cost of living yeah of of Kenyans yeah yeah and that's
something do you think the guy listens I believe so from your you know from it because even so
I mean we have a very strong public private partnership with the government ah nice nice that
where we are Distributing no essential Goods okay we're
doing some good volume so fast so yeah I I
believe they are listening and I'm seeing a lot of strong the government is now strongly
working with the startups across various industries from fintech yeah
to retail yeah to healthcare um that they are putting Tech in the Forefront
of creating these Solutions and impact the masses which is something different yeah uh it's a breath
of fresher yeah yeah I mean but but the reason even I'm asking this is that recently people are
like calling him em
otionalized and he's so much more much more yeah I think he says one thing
and then the next time he's saying a different thing like even with the gas and all that but
of course a politician is a pollution right but the other day we're in the county and everyone
is like trying to digitize everything right uh I feel like if Government actually does this
successfully there's so many opportunities that they can create just by Tech only but beyond that
you know there's always repo effect in Afr
ican ecosystems right uh that if tech Works maybe other
things can work uh and I'll give an example you guys can chime in as we conclude um I've been
to Netherlands and Netherlands is a big farmer just after us right and the reason why their
farming works is because there is Tech embedded like you can get a loan as you grow the crop
and the bank and recover the loan when you sell the crop or when actually someone sells the
product in the supermarket this just shows you how much actually tak
e and become a real enabler and
that's just one industry now talk about automobile automobile industry talk about industrialization
talk about manufacturing there's so much actually that if tech works and and we have the policies
that actually support that you know ecosystem to work there's so many things that could change
because I feel for us actually Africans to get out of the woods we need to be producers because we
are consuming a lot and you guys can agree right most of the things we
are consuming are not we're
not producing most of them I'm not saying it's bad to import most of the things but also you should
be able to export value-added products uh and they feel like Tech would really contribute yeah
yeah um yeah I think that's that that's embedded in the curve the current government policy yeah
I think always the the thing to wait for is how it's how well um they Implement and uh one thing
that I remember uh interestingly during the session with the Kenyan session of
Manufacturers
that the president uh you know mentioned is that you know even looking at East Africa as an
ecosystem Kenya as a leading economy should stop you know scrambling um you know for
for just production with the neighbors so I said for example he does not want to hear us
complaining about cheap milk importation from Uganda you know we should be adding value to
our milk and exporting you know value-added uh the milk out of the country yeah and we can
consume you uganda's milk and e
ven add value to it and Export yeah um so I think in terms
of uh um ideas and policies to grow the economy um you know the government has uh good ideas I
think the question is really going to go into the implementation yeah of these policies yeah
um and I think you know uh to say that I believe generally as entrepreneurs we are here to add
value absolutely both the ecosystem and even the government by providing Solutions yeah so
just to encourage um the government to involve entrepreneurs m
ore yeah um you know and and
be given a platform to share our ideas yeah you know and generally how we can help the
government with the you know being able to implement some of those yeah um you know ideas
that they have yeah because for example I think there's a very good use of technology in enabling
that ecosystem of uh import export and creating visibility yeah you need also to just show where
we are gaining value where we are losing value um so I think that generally the ideas are ther
e
where we might be struggling a little bit is in the implementation yeah um of those ideas
yeah themselves so if you're able to clean the pipelines uh we could really make us try a good
stripe in that case but what is the take on AI guys maybe I should ask this what was your take is
Market Force and building AI in the the platform yeah so we we're thinking about some of the
things that we might be able to do we haven't um yet started focusing on uh you know how
we're going to exactly use
AI but I do think that in most of the spaces there is uh room
to actually uh embed their eye to improve both efficiency and speed of execution in most of
the things yeah and also patterns uh because of course if I think about it quickly as you
scale and as you grow patterns will become really a good a good point at where you should
focus more even the customer should focus more even which Goods they could they could really
add value in their supply chain there's so much actually that would
come in that but anyway you
are the guys who are building the platform so uh you would have put something about Ai
No yeah people are losing jobs yeah yeah so um something else that I wanted us to conclude
with this in this discussion is is to ask you guys uh do you think when you because you guys have
really gone into African market and tried to scale brick and mortar you are on the girl like this
has to work in this town we have to figure a way for it to work do you think sometimes
um it
's just people don't understand your solution it's not because it's not for them it's
just they don't understand they don't feel like you know you're solving the problem that really
Sometimes some some startup could not even scale um I I so I think always I always agree
with this thing that says the customer is always right yeah yeah um I think if the customer
says that your solution is not working for them um you either pivot something that works for
the customer yeah um and the way we do
that at the market was through hyper localization okay in
the sense that you know sometimes just the process of how you do things um might work in Kenya and
sometimes even in Nairobi but not work in kisumu yeah which is a town outside of Nairobi yeah so
you will always find those new instances in the different markets because the culture um you
know Africa is very culturalized differently across so you know you have to have a business
that adopts to to that those cultures I do not think tha
t necessarily for example our solution
um you know gets that issue of like this is not for me uh you know because we've been serving
a real need in the market yeah but the way you giving out that solution because remember Tech is
never the solution Tech is an enabler yes right yes so for the match and what they care about
is I need to get my goods in time you know you know what are the other supporting factors
around getting those goods there is by now pay later there is the insurance that
is being
able to sell transport yeah virtual you know financial services and things like that yeah so
it's about how you're delivering that experience and you know you're using technology in that so
if the customer says the way your technology is working today doesn't work for me because maybe
I need bundles are expensive in my country right yeah um or if the payment for example
which we do a lot of payment through mobile money in some countries the fees are up to 3.5
percent and margins i
n fmcg are anywhere between two percent and five percent so there is no way
a merchant is gonna be able to use you you are fancy Mobile payment service and lose 3.5 percent
of their margin yeah yeah um you know in in that process yeah so you have to listen to The Merchant
and provide a solution that works because at the end of the day technology is not the solution yeah
the experience that you create on technology yeah that matters to those Merchants oh you've covered
it well for anyone who
is starting these business uh yeah I think uh what's what's your what's
your take or final uh you know shots on this yeah I think uh what I'd say is just to sum up
what he said mission was said you know it yeah um if you're building for the African Market
getting the ring talk to customers understand what they need and build um there are definitely
there's definitely a lot of opportunity in the continent and a lot of talent yeah uh but I feel
like unfortunately so many people get caught up
in the problems and the challenges yeah uh and
that makes people a lot of people spend time complaining why me yeah instead of getting in
the ring yeah and fighting because there is no other solution we just have to get in there and
solve the problems yeah so just to urge anyone who I can see an opportunity yeah yeah how's the
brain power how's the energy you know getting the ring and let's build a better continent
yeah ah Chief what's your parting shots um I think mine is to say a great t
hank you uh
to you for hosting us um it's been an interesting you're welcome anytime bro anytime anytime yeah
yeah and uh you know we're always happy to to share the journey and keep keep encouraging others
that uh want to join us in uh you know changing the face of the continent yeah um yeah yeah so uh
you know for me also it's just thank you guys for honoring the invite uh I know you guys are really
busy guys um and it's for good because most of the time you guys are trying to find new wa
ys share
your knowledge you know reach out to different markets and finding time to come here spend this
time sharing your knowledge is it's a great honor guys I know you guys where you've come from so I
understand the journey is really you know crazy right um and also to say that you know if you're
an entrepreneur out there you're thinking about building a business the only way to know that it
doesn't work is distributed and it fails and it was the worst case scenario anyway is this to fai
l
and start again and if you are doubting all this there's my story and that's who are saying okay
we built the first time we failed but the second time it didn't work out you know maybe even the
other that times and fourth times right and I'm sure even will not share the Journey of building
side as a projects where maybe the client is not happy anyway but that is not discourage you
from you know going on and building some uh solution that Africans could come with and it
has the potential
to scale in 54 countries in Africa keep going guys there's so many guys who
are looking up to you you might look like it's just Murphy but there's so many guys in Africa
I'm not talking about Kenya in Africa who are looking up to you and saying like oh my goodness
one day I want to be my song maybe one day I want to be test one day I want to build that solution
so as you build this solution as you go through this journey feel like you're not just building
for you you're building for everyon
e in Africa uh and just to wish you all the best in everything
that you do but also you're welcome here anytime I think you just discovered the first phase of
this I'm sure we're gonna post more more sessions um and uh just to say thank you and for the
guys who are listening uh on this impact Masters podcasts featuring Africa stalking podcasts and I
would encourage you to subscribe follow you know like share you know activate the notification
Bell uh and also a comment and ask questions uh
if you ask enough questions I'll invite
these guys to answer all of them uh we're on YouTube as impact Masters media and also Africa
stalking HQ and all podcasts a channel such as Spotify iTunes these uh Google podcasts check out
impact Masters and the Africa stalking podcasts is just to thank you and say
see you next time [Music]
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