A local food delivery company, Vuba Vuba Africa has set up operations and is set to commence deliveries today. Vuba Vuba Africa could have an edge in the local market owing to the advantage of having on board the experience of Rwandans who have been involved in running the exiting food delivery company, Jumia Food. The new firm is led by Albert Munyabugingo, former Jumia Food Managing Director with his team comprising of staff who worked at the firm for about 5 years. The firm is retaining about 80 per cent of the staff and riders. To ensure relevance to the local context, Munyabugingo said that they will be using a Mobile App that will be user-friendly as it has been locally developed, locally hosted and has taken into account the characteristics of the country. The firm’s operations will include delivering food from all restaurants in Kigali to clients’ doorsteps, delivering daily essentials from supermarkets to homes under its Supermarket category as well as drinks, beverages and party related under its Liquor Store category. The company has a Mobile App, Vuba Vuba, which free on Google Play Store for android users and Apple App Store for iOS users. Among the adjustments they are introducing is that that will benefit businesses restaurants, hotels and supermarkets they will be working with is increasing the frequency of making payments to vendors hence avoiding challenges of cash flow. “Settlements will be made twice a week to allow its vendor partners to manage their cash flow,” Munyabugingo said. With the available infrastructure, the firm says that they will be working to reduce the delivery time for orders to between 35 and 40 minutes as well as a more affordable fee of Rwf1000 in 95 per cent of areas in Kigali. Munyabugingo told The New Times that informed by their experience over the years they will seek increased relevance by focusing on the purchasing power of their clients “We shall be adding more vendors serving lunch at a price affordable by many of us,” he said. Experience has also taught them that no one marketing concept serves the market entirely and they have consequently built diverse models. “We have identified concepts that work for Rwanda and understood there is no one fits all markets. Over the past six years, we have tried several approaches, have seen a tremendous change in the online community and adapted ourselves to serve our community the better and expected way,” he said. The firm says that they are in the process of figuring out how local food can be consumed more on the local scene. So far, they noted that among the reasons it’s not among the most consumed delicacies is challenges in packaging. “Packaging was not the best on the market, which is a gap we are looking into filling by working with our restaurant partners to get appropriate and affordable packaging,” he said. The Rwandan unit of Jumia Technologies has said it is suspending its operations in the country after six years of delivering food and drinks. Rwanda was the third market where the continent’s largest e-Commerce platform is shutting operations in a space of one month after Tanzania and Cameroon. However, experts say that there is a viable market in the country.
