E-Business
B2B e-commerce Platforms and the Consumer Goods Distribution Value Chain
By Lere Ojedokun
International rating agency eMarketer estimated that the global e-commerce sector would be worth USD27 trillion in 2020. This may not be anything near what the world’s e-commerce market expected when Phil Brandenberger of Philadelphia, the man famed to be the initiator of the e-commerce revolution, made his first purchase on August 11, 1994.
Prior to 2012 when this revolution extended to the country, most Nigerians used to hear of people who shop at the comfort of their homes and have their orders delivered to them. This used to be one of those foreign stories, told by the privileged few who have lived overseas.
Today, e-commerce has grown to become a big part of Nigerians with many platforms offering general and specialised products and services. The burgeoning market could only be as a result of the many benefits that accrue to all the touchpoints in the value chain – e-commerce platforms, manufacturers, wholesalers, logistics services providers, customers and many others.
The success of the e-commerce platforms in the country, which play mostly in the business-to-customers (B2C) subsector spurred many other players who see a big opportunity in extending such services to the business-to-business (B2B) subsector.
In the past few years, many platforms like Alerzo, Omnibiz Africa, Wabi Nigeria, Chooya etc have sprung up and are helping to facilitate the estimated USD100+ billion informal retail market in the country.
Just like the B2C e-commerce platforms are positively touching the lives of their stakeholders, the B2B platforms, with their niche offerings, are positively facilitating the businesses of their stakeholders, especially the manufacturers, the wholesalers and the retailers, who have latched onto their platforms.
Among other things, the manufacturers and distributors benefit from the logistics services offered by platforms like Alerzo as these platforms transport the ordered goods from manufacturers’ and distributors’ warehouses to the target retailers, scattered all over the country at no cost to these manufacturers and distributors.
Perhaps, one of the most strategic offerings of the B2B e-commerce platforms for manufacturers and distributors in the country is market intelligence. They collect data of, and develop insights around, consumer behaviours and preferences.
Manufacturers and distributors can partner with these B2B companies to share these insights and use them to guide their production and supply respectively, ultimately giving them a better understanding of their end consumer.
For the retailers, the B2B e-commerce platforms have not only boosted their profitability but have also reduced the burden that comes with the day-to-day running of their businesses as well as making their businesses more sustainable.
These platforms buy from the manufacturers and/or the big-time distributors at good prices and through their scale sell to the informal retailers at prices below what are obtainable in the open markets where third party costs are factored into the prices.
Another major gain of the informal retailers from the emergence of the B2B e-commerce platforms is that they can sit in the comfort of their shops or homes and, with a click of a button on any of the multiple channels open to them, restock their shops. Alerzo, for instance, enables this through its retail app, Alerzoshop.
Some of these B2B platforms even go the extra mile of delivering these retailers’ orders to their shops at no extra cost to them.
For example, Alerzo has been delivering the orders of the over 80,000 informal retailers across the country who have signed up to its platform, and in the process, is elevating their health status, improving their quality of family life and saving them huge resources that would have been expended in the running of their businesses.
The icing on the cake for these retailers is that many of these B2B platforms offer book-keeping applications for retailers to track their sales, cost, price, profit and manage their customers, as well as payment platforms (which manufacturers and distributors can also take advantage of) like AlerzoPay and Veedez by Alerzo.
With an increasing number of retailers adopting smarter ways of doing business, it is expected that more manufacturers will take advantage of this trend, especially in a growing competitive market.
Lere Ojedokun is a Communications Expert based in Lagos
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
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