#TechCEO Meet Onyekachi Izukanne, The Man Behind African Retail Aggregator 'TradeDepot'

TradeDepot is led by co-founder and CEO Onyekachi Izukanne. With 17 years of expertise in technology and consulting, he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

Building TradeDepot

He has been a management consultant for more than 11 years, focusing on consumer goods, energy, and financial services. Onyekachi co-founded C2G Consulting before joining TradeDepot, a business he leveraged to become the top SAP Partner in West Africa by 2013, according to Nairametrics.

TradeDepot is a distributor and retail aggregator established in 2016 to unify Nigeria's disjointed informal retail supply chain by partnering with merchants throughout Africa.

The technology of TradeDepot was developed to meet the various needs of its users. Approximately 60,000 micro retailers are currently part of its network.

The company purchases goods from vendors and manages shipping, pricing, inventory, returns, customer services, and many more.

The startup also claims that tens of thousands of retail establishments are on TradeDepot's distribution network and get products from it on a daily basis.

"Our focus is distribution, which is a very feasible problem because to purchase whatever item we need, distribution is necessary for getting it from the maker to us. Whether it is a shirt, food, or digital item, there needs to be distribution," Izukanne said in an interview with Nairametrics.

More than 200 people work for the company, with about 40,000 micro-retailers using its platform to buy everyday household items from companies like Unilever, Nestlé, Danone, and Kellogg's. These retailers include kiosks, spaza stores, and mini-markets, according to How we made it in Africa.

For the past five years, TradeDepot's core business has been building supply chains with technology and connecting merchants one after the other. The company now offers a full range of products to launch digital wallets and financial services, especially credit products or BNPL.

BNPL's offer is part of the company's ShopTopUp platform, which gives retailers access to credit lines for all consumer goods on the app.

Acquiring Green Lion

Ghanaian Green Lion, the fastest-growing B2B e-commerce platform in Ghana, was acquired by TradeDepot recently to accelerate the delivery of its services.

With the acquisition of Green Lion, the company will expand further into Ghana after raising a US$110 million Series B funding round in December.

This acquisition will help TradeDepot elevate its technology, data, and robust logistics services to connect more retailers in Ghanain cities to suppliers and create an outlet for cost-effective and accessible financing.

According to Disrupt Africa, Ghana's retail sector is worth US$24.4 billion and is anticipated to reach US$33.16 billion by 2024. The SME retailers are expected to account for almost 90% of the market by that year.

The acquisition will accelerate the delivery of TradeDepot services to more cities, providing higher sales, higher margins, and other value-added services to all parts of the retail value chain.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla