Afrebay Parades Exotic Brands
It was a roll call of entrepreneurs and other stakeholders as Afrebay Trading Platform makes its way to making Nigerian brands global. At a recent stakeholders’ conference held at Oriental Hotel, Lagos, Afrebay’s drive towards providing services to small and large private companies as well as non-profit organisations were discussed through a series of presentations by key players in product and services marketing.
In the welcome address that was delivered by Mr. Afolabi Andu, it was remarked that Afrebay was founded on the need to showcase authentic African brands through technology. There were a few surprises at the unveiling ceremony. One of them was from the CEO, Farm Crowdy, Mr. Onyeka Akuma who revealed how technology is enabling the agricultural sector in Nigeria and beyond through the application of smart farming techniques that covers acquisition and distribution of quality seeds and fertiliser, agro-knowledge sharing, amongst others.
For the CEO, Afrebay, USA, Lekan Salaam, this initiative is about changing lives. It is not just another e-commerce platform that is detached from the actual people that it is meant to serve.
“Nigeria is a good country. We are geniuses. We came to explore and so we created an app. We also want to see what our customers’ needs are. Our eyes are set on building the Nigeria of our dreams.
“To be Afrebay ambassador, you must have finished high school. We will then train you. We are not just about buying and selling. We are about empowerment. And we are building global brands that meet quality standards,’’ he said.
In the same vein, Fela Durotoye identified three requirements that a global brand must meet. They are desires, needs and aspirations. He also spoke on the need to have enabling laws and policies for businesses in Nigeria.
“People should be succeeding because of the government not in spite of the government,’’ he said. He encourages makers of global brands to be determined to make quality products and services which mirrored what Maureen Obaweya, the CEO, Merin O’ said about the painstaking effort she had put into her luxury accessories. She advised entrepreneurs to “start small and dream big.”
For the trained lawyer and educationist, Mrs. Abolaji Osime, entrepreneurs need to recognise business opportunities, be critical thinkers and problem solvers while ultimately taking advantage of technology to propagate businesses.
She observed that the largest chunk of the unemployed in Nigeria are SSCE certificate holders. She blamed the unemployment rate in Nigeria on poor educational system that still functions on irrelevant curriculum. She argues that at present, the Nigerian school curriculum is very much theoretical rather than skill-oriented.
Other problems that she identified as the causes of unemployment include inadequate capacity, non-availability of vocational institutions and lack of access to finance. She also found it worrisome that many entrepreneurs in Nigeria are fond of copying business models which may not necessarily work for them. She charged entrepreneurs to reinvest profits in business.