The digitisation of the traditional retailer in Africa
The humble mom-and-pop shop or traditional retailer has been getting a lot of attention of late. It seems like not
Spaza shops in South Africa and the startups that tried to digitise them
In March 2020 I wrote about a wave of South African startups that wanted to change how spaza shops buy
What multinationals can bring to health supply chains
Sceptics have long argued that corporate social responsibility was mostly a way of throwing money at a problem in exchange
Outbound transportation issues in Africa
Transport is one of the biggest headaches for any business operating in Africa. Moving goods has long been estimated to
Guinea-Conakry retail landscape
Guinea has seen better days. Political instability and an uncertain economic outlook have worn down consumer confidence, and it shows
Supply chains in the DRC: roads, rivers and rival corridors
In October 1990, when Rwandan Patriotic Front troops poured over the border from Uganda, Zaire’s President Mobutu Sese Seko scoffed
South Africa’s traditional trade keeps beating the supermarkets
In August 2023, I wrote about how South Africa’s traditional trade, the spaza shops, taverns and independent superettes, had bounced
Group buying in Kenya, three years on
In May 2023, a few months after Kapu came out of stealth, I wrote about it as one of two
Why the distributor won: lessons for serving micro-retailers in emerging markets
For most of the past decade, the distributor was cast as the problem. Start-ups across Africa raised hundreds of millions
Redefining African Retail: The Rise of Mid-Tier Urban Retail Supermarkets
In late 2023, The Economist described Ruaka, a fast-growing town on the edge of Nairobi, as a snapshot of African
What happened to YoLa Fresh in Morocco
In 2024 I wrote about YoLa Fresh, a Casablanca startup that had just raised US$7 million to connect Morocco’s smallholder
