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How e-Commerce Improves Health and Safety Of Informal Retailers

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As Nigeria pushes towards a virile digital economy, the informal retail sector, with billions of dollars investment, holds a crucial role in attaining this goal.

However, a huge chunk of the market still operates the old-fashioned inventory model, and the rigour in this process of restocking takes a huge toll on them.

To understand the unique health and safety implications of stocking an informal retail store, it’s important to highlight processes which occur on a typical market day for informal retailers.

For a retailer in a city like Lagos, the struggle for transportation could be a bigger job than the shopping activities at the market. And after expending physical and mental energy in the hunt for the best stock prices at different distributor outlets, they are faced with the challenge of transporting the goods back to their retail stores. This usually comes with another load of trouble.

Majority of markets, especially in Lagos, attract exit fees. While trying to sort this out, a retailer is looking for a carrier to convey the goods to the bus stop, and in doing so, must also be as vigilant as possible to ensure a thief or market hoodlum is not approaching in the form of a “carrier’.

“Retailers have recounted their pain points caused from the drudgery of market visits and haggling to attribute to their status as regulars at health centres and pharmacies. For them, most of their medical issues pointed to immense stress in their daily life,” said Alerzo CEO, Adewale Opaleye.

The last three years have seen the rise of B2B e-commerce platforms like Alerzo, TradeDepot, Omnibiz and others springing up to bridge the online service gap for the informal retail market. Opaleye created Alerzo, after seeing the challenges his mother, an informal retailer, went through. He said Alerzo in the last two years is alleviating health and safety issues for retailers on the platform.

“70% of our retailers previously restocked 2-3 times a week while 14% restocked more than 4 times per week. The market trips, as expounded, reasonably attributes to emotional, mental and physical strain.

“Digging deeper into their stressors, our findings show a combination of fatigue associated with the rigours of stocking their shops and taking care of their growing families,” he said.

With their activities, B2B platforms are eliminating the need for retailers to make frequent trips to central markets; the need to haggle incessantly; the need to pay fees to carriers and market authorities, and the need to foot transportation bills (within N500 to over N5,000).

Currently, the market is dominated by the tedious visit to the physical market. Bringing these informal retailers to the online shipping platform will no doubt go a long way in the drive for a robust digital economy and also be a major boost to the economy of the country. And e-commerce platforms appear ready to be the required connector and facilitator for thousands of retailers still outside the digital net.

 


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E-Business

FG Mulls Fibre Optic Layout to Bridge Internet Gaps

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President Bola Tinubu said that his administration has initiated a project to install fibre optic cables across the country, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

FG Mulls Fibre Optic Layout to Bridge Internet Gaps

His plans were contained in a speech he delivered at a joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of Democracy Day on Thursday, June 12.

He said the fibre optic layout is part of other projects being embarked on.

“In addition, we have embarked on an ambitious project to lay fibre optic cables across the nation, a transformative step toward bridging the digital divide and fostering greater connectivity.

“This initiative promises not only to enhance the speed and reliability of internet access but also to revolutionise how businesses operate, how students learn, and how communities stay connected,” Tinubu stated.

He maintained that by extending this critical infrastructure, his government is empowering entrepreneurs, enabling digital education, and providing the tools for our youth to compete in a globalised world.

In a most recent report on Internet connectivity, The ICIR pointed out how Nigeria has faced setbacks in its deployment of fibre optic cables and needs a transformation.

The challenges revolve around vandalism, inadequate coordination between road construction and telecom infrastructure, and varying right-of-way (RoW) charges across states.

Among industry experts, these issues impact network outages, increase repair costs, and hinder broadband expansion efforts.

It has also further threatened the digital economy, leading to slower Internet speeds, dropped calls, and unreliable connectivity among others.


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African Startups Raised $345m in Funding in May

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African startups raised more than $345 million across 65 deals in May, more than double the amount raised in the same period of last year, according to a report by Briter, a research and business intelligence firm.

The report disclosed that both the number of deals and participating companies declined, confirming a growing trend of fewer companies raising funds in larger sizes.

It said fintech attracted the highest share of funding in May, accounting for 34 percent of the total, while cleantech followed closely, driven by a debt deal from Sun King. The company raised $80 million (in local currency) to expand clean energy access in Nigeria.

“Equity remains the primary instrument in terms of total value. There’s no doubt about it; in fact, equity deals with disclosed amounts captured more than half of the total funding volume in May.

“However, debt financing is increasingly proving its weight. Although it accounted for only 8 percent of all deals, it represented 32 percent of the total funding, highlighting the typically larger size of debt transactions. With the rise of specialised vehicles targeting early-stage businesses, debt is becoming an increasingly important part of Africa’s innovation funding landscape,” it said.

Briter’s report added that grants continued to play a vital role in early-stage support, especially in the education technology (EdTech) sector. The Mastercard Foundation led the pack in grant activity, funding a new cohort of EdTech innovators in Nigeria and Kenya. Each selected startup is set to receive $100,000 in grant funding, in addition to mentorship and business development support.

Multilaterals also made a strong showing in May, it said. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a World Bank Group member, issued a $179.6 million guarantee to CleanTech firm KOKO Networks. The support will help scale its clean energy solutions across Kenya.

“This deal not only demonstrates growing international confidence in African climate ventures but also signals a promising pathway for other asset-intensive startups in clean cooking, agriculture, and renewable energy,” the report said.

From a geographic perspective, Egypt emerged as the continent’s fundraising powerhouse for the month, contributing 51 percent of all funding raised. The country recorded 12 deals across equity, debt, and bond instruments. Notably, FinTech platform MNT-Halan raised $50 million through a bond issuance, further illustrating the diversification of capital-raising mechanisms in the region.

Outside Egypt, funding was distributed across Africa’s three other key markets, which are Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, with limited activity recorded in countries such as Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco, and Uganda, each registering between one and three deals.

In terms of exits, the African tech landscape continues to mature. Three companies—Baobab+, Qardy, and Shopa—were acquired in May, bringing the total number of exits this year to 22. This already surpasses last year’s count for the same period. Qardy was acquired by Catalyst Partners Middle East (CPME) in a disclosed deal valued at $23 million, the report added.

 


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E-Business

Human Hacking: When Cyber Criminals Target You

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By Nancy Werteen

When you get anti-hacking advice, you’ve probably heard “Don’t use a simple password,” or “Don’t plug in that USB you found on the ground.”

Human Hacking: When Cyber Criminals Target You

But there’s one form of hacking that doesn’t always require a computer, and it costs businesses about 4.88 million dollars a year.

Modern hackers aren’t trying to get into your computer; they’re trying to get into you.

“They’ll try to learn about you a little bit, and they’ll try to use that information against you to try to get you to complete some action, maybe to send somebody some money,” said Kevin Moran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster, University of Central Florida.

IBM calls this human hacking, because it exploits human error instead of system error.

“With people just being busy and maybe not very carefully checking some of the emails or the phone calls that they get, can be something unfortunately that people can fall victim to,” said Moran.

Also known as social engineering, this often takes the form of phishing, where the hacker tries to “fish” the information out of you by impersonating family, friends, or even your bank.

There’s also baiting, where the hacker baits you with something of value. Remember the Nigerian prince scam?

That’s a famous example of baiting. There’s also pretexting, where the hacker will claim the victim has already been hacked, and that the hacker can fix it if you just send over your passwords. So, what can you do?

“Just as a rule of thumb, instead of clicking on links and emails, just go to the website yourself. And that will prevent, a lot of these types of attacks from happening,” explained Moran.

Phishing can take many forms.

Spear phishing targets people with access to confidential information, often to get access into an entire business, and whale phishing targets CEOs or political figures.

Search engine phishing is when hackers create fake websites promising services or goods you’ll never receive.

Angler phishing is when hackers create fake social media accounts impersonating famous people or companies.

Finally, vishing and smishing is phishing done through phone calls and texts respectively.

 

 

 

 

 


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