NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 29 – Traders of Africa (TOFA), an online marketplace for goods originating from Africa has launched in Kenya.
This is the fourth country tradersofafrica.com has entered in, having already launched in Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.
The market place is focused on driving intra-African trade as well as trade between Africa and the world through technology.
The move comes even as the e-commerce space is attracting more players with Safaricom announcing it will launch its platform in October.
TOFA Chief Executive, Uju Uzo-Ojinnaka says TOFA’s aim is to create sustainable wealth for individuals, communities, organisations and nation states in Africa.
“According to the UN, the continental African economy has a GDP of $2.8 trillion but intra-African trade is just 16 percent. A lot of Africans would rather import than purchase locally. Ironically, a lot of those ‘exotic’ goods have origin from Africa. TOFA simply wants to encourage Africans to trade to trade with the world,” Ojinnaka told Capital FM Business.
The firm has physically engaged over merchants spread across the continent with plans in place to launch in Ghana next month.
It has over 9,000 merchants already signed up and plans to verify buyers and sellers in a bid to curb theft.
The firm has partnered with Ecobank, who will provide Escrow for deal settlements.
“TOFA’s dream is to get all 54 African countries on board in the next 24 months and plans to onboard Mali, Zambia, South Africa, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso & Tanzania over the next 6 months,” she said.
The products and services TOFA offers include but are not limited to Agriculture, Construction, Wood & Furniture, Food, Beverages, Leather, Textile and Mineral products.
Trading on the marketplace will start on September 1, 2017.