Konga’s CEO discloses secrets of firm’s huge growth

The Co-Chief Executive Officer of an e-commerce company, Konga, Prince Nnamdi Ekeh has disclosed how the company made it to the top as a clear leader in the competitive e-commerce market.

While speaking during the CNN Marketplace Africa on the sidelines of the first Creative Africa Exchange weekend in Kigali, Rwanda,  Ekeh said that the omnichannel structure of Konga in which it operates both online and offline is one of the advantages that has placed the company upfront.

He also said that the company’s state-of-the-art regional warehousing facilities had enabled it to retain inventory in diverse states and locations in the country as well as sound knowledge of the local business terrain.

‘‘Konga is best positioned as the leader in the Nigerian e-commerce market. We are not just an e-commerce company but we run an omnichannel model with over 30 physical stores spread across Nigeria.

“So, we are the closest to the people. Also, we are seeing huge growth in the business and in our customer base. Between last year and this year, the business grew by almost eight times,’’ he said.

According to him, the key is growing the revenue while being able to manage the costs. “That is the only way for sustainable growth. Last year, we have been able to grow revenue by eight times but we have also been able to reduce our costs by 65%. That is quite huge,’’ Ekeh said.

[READ MORE: Konga unveils new USSD features, ATM card-less initiative)

The Kxpress logistics platform: Speaking further, the Konga boss made known that the company’s logistic platform, Kxpress was established to resolve the challenges of logistics in the industry. He said that building this platform had helped the Konga brand add value because other players in the industry also use it to deliver their products to customers.

“We built a logistics platform working with franchisees in local areas. If you understand the dynamics of local villages in Nigeria, most people know each other. As long as we had the name and the phone number of the person who requires the product, someone in the local village knows that person. So we partnered with local people and empowered them to deliver to the last mile for us.

 ‘‘Today, we have built Kxpress, our logistics platform, to the point where we are not only delivering for Konga but for other partners. That’s where you begin to add value because not only Konga has that problem.

” A lot of people have the same problem. People who sell on social media have that problem too. So, we are building a platform not just for ourselves but for the entire industry. With that, we are able to scale much quicker.’

When asked about Konga’s expansion plans, Ekeh noted that the company’s goal was to dominate Nigeria first of all before expanding to other African countries.