During visits to Rwanda, Richard Adefemi, a Nigerian citizen, observed the various opportunities available, for example, the need to boost local businesses. He sought ways to connect Rwandan sellers to buyers, thus creating a phone app dubbed, “Isoko Nya Rwanda”. According to him, the leadership and vision of Rwanda, with established structures in place to support and sustain political, economic, and social development, made his decision smooth. He says that he was looking for an African country to invest in, and possibly retire from. “As a result, I began to carry out a lot of research, and I also spent time engaging friends who were either looking for investment opportunities in Africa, or were already investing in Africa, to get a sense of which country they preferred. Well, long story short, Rwanda topped the list for me, and that was the beginning of my journey here,” he says. Being an Information Technology (IT) expert, with experience stretching over 25 years, participating in IT came easy and naturally for him. Richard Adefemi. Photos/ Courtesy According to Adefemi, who currently lives in Ontario, Canada, since the process of making trips to markets and shopping malls is time-consuming, with the app, a customer chats directly with the seller about the product or service of their choice, prices, quality of the product, and gets more information in the comfort of their home or office. He says that the idea is to get sellers to advertise their products and services, and to get buyers to browse these products and services. He points out that sellers are benefiting from the app since they advertise and post their products and services for free, describe the qualities of the product or service or business for buyers to read and understand, add addresses, phone numbers, emails, or chat directly with buyers on the app, and buyers contact them. Adefemi states that the app also provides opportunities for new small businesses that don’t have a physical presence to sell their products or services, and also gives graduates and job seekers the opportunity to advertise their skills or services. “Sellers in remote areas will be able to advertise their products and have more exposure to buyers across Rwanda over and above their locality. Foreigners and visitors in Rwanda can also be able to search and find products or services they want while in Rwanda. The app also gives an option to negotiate prices with several sellers and select the best offer,” he says. Adefemi says that anyone can use the app as long as they have a smartphone with enough space to install it. Users with the last three to four versions of Android and iOS should be able to use it, and users will need an email address and a mobile phone number to register and create a free account. He says that all legal products and services are advertised on the app, for instance clothing for adults, children, babies, and electronics, cars and trucks (new or fairly used), bicycles, jewellery, computers and accessories, furniture, beddings, decor, flowers, mobile phones and accessories, farm products and food, books, stationery and toys. Other services include real estate, accommodation, hotels, house painting, babysitting, tutoring, bricklaying, roofing, house construction, public announcements, jobs, music, cleaning, photography, videography, weddings, food and catering, health and beauty, skilled trades, finance (personal and business tax, and bookkeeping), legal (notary public, wills, and probate, divorce and immigration), clinical, fitness and personal training, travel, and vacation (discount tickets, airport taxi, travel insurance) tourism and more. Adefemi is certain that ‘Isoko Nya Rwanda’ will spread and create awareness across all people in Rwanda, since it’s an app built solely to connect buyers and sellers in Rwanda, regardless of location. He believes that the success of the app will depend on the number of people who are willing to support it and make it a truly Rwandan market app. Challenges “First and foremost, the majority of sellers are not very knowledgeable in downloading and using apps to advertise their business. Second, is failure to get the target market of buyers who can use the app to search for what they want. The buyers will not search if they don’t know the app exists. I also believe that some people don’t have money to buy data to use the app, except if they have access to free Wi-Fi,” he says. Adefemi says he is yet to reach the targeted number of people since the app started three years ago. He lacks the required publicity needed to attract both buyers and sellers. His plan is to reach one million users before he turns the charging component on.
