Mall for Africa spreads tentacles to Kenya

Mall for Africa, the Nigerian owned premier African e-commerce platform, has expanded the frontiers of its business horizon to Kenya. This comes as the first step of the company’s plan to move into 20 African countries in the next two years. The online shopping platform launched operations in Nairobi early this year in a bid to cash in on the growing demand for online shopping in Kenya and the entire East Africa.

Tope Folayan, co-founder of the company, said in a statement “We see Kenya as the biggest e-commerce opportunity in East Africa and the numbers and data show it”.  According to the co-founder,  more than half of the world’s global population growth predicted between now and 2050 will be on the continent with a rise from 1.1 billion people to 2.4 billion. Kenya currently has 48 million people and saw a 33% increase in purchase-based queries in 2015. Also placing the country at advantage, the nation’s smartphone penetration is also a very impressive,  coming third with 15% after South Africa (34%) and Nigeria (30%). A Partech 2016 report also noted that of the top three destinations for start-up funding in Africa, Kenya features alongside Nigeria and South Africa. All these puts Kenya at a good position for this nature of business and business in general.

Country Manager of Mall for Africa in Kenya, Naomi Konditi-Kivuvani said in the statement that “it’s actually mind-boggling how our rates are growing in all parts of this country”  in relation to the company’s performance so far in the Kenyan market. She also said that with the growing demand for genuine international products, and a preference to accepted payment platforms, the launch of MallforAfrica.com will make it easier for Kenyans to purchase goods from a store of their choice and have it delivered to their doorstep within 15 days.

Kenyans are increasingly taking up to ‘e-tailing’ – whereby they shop online and have the goods delivered to their homes or offices. This has resulted in the entry of new players into the e-commerce and expansion by existing players to cater for the increasing demands.

Hezron Atunde