Nigeria has the potential to become one of the biggest on-demand markets in the world but before then it needs a fast-growing middle-class and innovative startups to unlock the market. With a population projected to hit 400 million by 2050 Nigeria is surely courting the attention of global and local delivery startups eager to take a pie in the continent’s fastest growing market.
Nigeria’s Internet Penetration keeps growing
Ever since the introduction of GSM into Nigeria in 2001 and the early adoption of smartphones, Nigeria internet penetration has gone from a few thousands internet users to a population with over 108 million internet users. Nigeria currently ranks as one of the fastest growing internet users in Africa with a 49% penetration rate. This is no coincidence. Series of actions by the Nigerian government and telecommunications companies has helped cut down the cost of data from as high as N4000/GB to about N500/GB today. This has no doubt opened doors to the development of the internet market in Nigeria.
Ecommerce Development in Nigeria
Ecommerce was one of the first new markets to develop in Nigeria following the explosion of affordable smartphones and cheap data. This birthed startups such as Jumia, Konga and several other players which scrambled to get a pie in Nigeria’s nascent ecommerce industry. Ecommerce may have come a long way since it was popularized by Jumia in 2012, It is still fraught with challenges. One of the biggest challenges to ecommerce in Nigeria is logistics. With Nigeria’s notorious road network, ecommerce companies in Nigeria are experiencing a logistics nightmare; bleeding cash, time and resources.
On-Demand Economy in Nigeria
On-demand companies can help fill in the gap left by ecommerce players. The market is growing fast. Over the past 2 years we have seen more than 3 global brand launch in Nigeria. One of the reasons why the on-demand delivery market is growing is its ability to reach last-mile customers and offer more custom selection of products to users.
One of such companies is Waive Delivery. Waive is one of several players in the fast-growing on-demand delivery market in Nigeria. However, Waive does not only want to enter the market, it wants to completely redefine instant shopping and delivery in Nigeria. According to its CEO, Joseph Omale, “Waive is bringing game-changing technology to the on-demand market in Nigeria. Waive is fulfilling Nigeria’s demand for an all-encompassing delivery platform for food, drinks, groceries, and deliveries of any sort. We want to become the Instacart for Africa. Nigeria is a unique market and its consumers appreciate technology solutions that elevate their life and give them freedom.”
Waive in Nigeria
In early 2017, Joseph Omale began to nurse the idea of an all encompassing delivery platform after a visit to Nigeria almost made him lose an important project. A failed business delivery coupled with strings of frustrating experience trying to order food throughout his stay in Lagos, Nigeria gave Joseph the impetus to start an everything delivery platform that relies on speed and geo-fencing technology.
It didn’t stay long before Joseph began to develop plans to actualize his vision for an all encompassing delivery platform in Nigeria. To achieve this, he teamed up with his friend, Diacre Bayashime, a software developer, to create a platform to help merchants list their products, connect with customers and deliver to customers’ doorstep from a single platform. After several months of research and iterations, they launched the first version of their delivery platform, Waive Delivery.
Waive has built a robust marketplace application that allows anyone to order meals, food, drinks and other items from their favourite local merchants and drivers deliver them directly to their doorsteps. But it’s not just food and drinks, Waive wants to be the future of anything delivery in Nigeria. Whether it’s a small business parcel or gift for loved ones, Waive wants to deliver it all.
Analyzing the market friction, Waive’s Marketing Lead, Seyi King said, “One of the biggest feedback gotten from users of on-demand services in Nigeria is the clamour for fast-delivery services. This informed the product development in Waive. With Waive you are guaranteed not only same-day delivery but fast delivery of your order. This is possible through an advanced geo-fencing solution that routes your order to the closest Waive rider around you. The goal here is to ensure the fastest possible delivery.“
One of the frustrations from users has been being able to know exactly where their delivery person is at any point time. To solve this, Waive has deployed real-time GPS technology to help users track their orders. With this feature, Waive wants to put one of the best GPS technologies in the hands of its users.
Apart from building a robust platform, Waive wants to have the most customer-centric delivery solution in the market. To this end, it has built features such as live chat to chat with drivers and Waive customer support real time. For continuous improvement, it has created a rating feature that helps to keep only the best drivers on its platform.
Considering Nigeria’s cash-driven economy, Waive has also integrated cash on delivery in addition to its card payment to give users choice when completing payments. Users on its platform can also earn money by sharing referral codes with friends and family and also get discounts by simply shopping on its platform.
It’s still early days but Waive believes it has the best platform coupled with the best team to deliver the best on-demand delivery experience to Nigerians.
Waive is currently available in Lagos and Abuja and would commence operation in other Nigeria cities soon.
To download Waive, visit playstore or Appstore
To register your store on Waive, click on this link
