Page 10 - LUA January - February 2023 Magazine

FOCUS

expectations, especially for large local and
multinational companies. “It can be tricky
to solve for those without aggregators such
as Amitruck,” he added.
The logistics industry in Africa
deals with highly fragmented freight
management systems, high costs,
complexity, opaque processes and poor
connectivity among stakeholders.
To streamline the chaos, Usidame
believes that Africa requires a radical
systemic transformation focused on
the gateway, trucking and logistics of IoT to help track goods and eventually
facilitation inefficiencies. with the data collected from these basics
“Getting the logistics infrastructure right we might be able to progress to AI and
is critical for an efficient logistics supply Blockchain. There are still a lot of very basic
chain, as Africa's supply chain networks will issues to solve,” he said.
be a determining factor of Africa’s global One of the other things that make
competitiveness in the future,” he said. the African logistics tech ecosystem is
In August 2022, Google, through its its willingness to collaborate and strive
$50 million Africa Investment Fund, towards an integrated logistics network with
announced participation in the Pre-Series Getting the logistics technology. For example, Mobility 54 – the
B round of the African on-demand logistics infra right is critical corporate venture capital subsidiary of
and trucking company Lori Systems. This Toyota Tsusho and CFAO – was one of the
is because of the tech giant’s belief in how as Africa's supply companies that invested in OnePort 365 in
much the logistics tech landscape and chain networks will be April 2022 together with one of the biggest
startups in the ecosystem can transform a determining factor Japanese venture capitals Samurai Incubate,
African business and economics. Flexport and SBI Investment.
According to Lori Systems Linkedin page, of Africa’s global Mobility 54 has been investing in the
the start-up is tackling a massive issue in competitiveness in improvement and digitalization of the
Africa. “$180 billion is spent annually on the future. in-land logistics sector in Africa through
haulage across Africa, which means that the strategic partnership with Sendy and
up to 75 percent of a product’s cost is due SOLA-USIDAME Kamtar which is also engaged in digital
ONEPORT 365
to logistics (compared to 6 percent in the logistics services in French-speaking Africa.
US),” it reads. Mwangi noted that there are several Mobility 54 invested $2 million in
Moove, an African mobility fintech, notable African startups in logistics OnePort and in the announcement it lists
had signed a partnership with Lori bringing different solutions to create value one of its purposes as “To facilitate the
Systems to launch in East Africa in 2021. in parts of the value chain. Some of the collaboration with Sendy and Kamtar
Moove is solving the problem of African startups he named are: Kobo360 in Nigeria, whereby Mobility 54 aims to develop a
entrepreneurs' access to finance through Trella in the Middle East and North Africa, digitally-integrated logistics service for both
digitation. It is an African-born, global Jetstream in Ghana and many others. These cross-border and in-land transport.”
mobility fintech company that provides tech-enabled logistics startups use different Meanwhile, speaking about the new year
revenue-based vehicle financing and technologies including artificial intelligence and the future of logistics tech in Africa, the
financial services to mobility entrepreneurs (AI), machine learning (ML) and Internet of most practical technology that Mwangi of
across ride-hailing, logistics, mass transit, Things (IoT) to achieve the desired results. Amitruck is looking forward to in 2023 is
and instant delivery platforms. However, Mwangi believes that they 5G connectivity. He believes 5G will have a
In June 2022, Moove announced its still need some basics to be in place in deep impact on the information exchanged
second trucking partnership in Kenya Africa before starting to push for those, between various people and systems which
with Sendy, a Nairobi-based tech company even though he appreciates the need for will result in better coordination between
that builds fulfilment infrastructure deep technology and the amazing benefits operators. “There are various technologies
for e-commerce and consumer brands. it can bring to this market. “Right now we that can transform logistics, but it requires
The announcement reads. “The Sendy see basic technology used for warehousing, time and effort to build professional-grade
partnership will enable fast, easy, and truck aggregation, physical technology such solutions that truly create value and can
effective delivery of critical goods within as cranes, forklifts, infrastructure such as easily be adopted. Several technologies have
Kenya to and from various destinations, roads and good governance as being more already made their way into businesses
meeting the needs of a diverse portfolio of important. Once we have those in place and such as mobile money, cloud computing,
cargo owners and end consumers.” working well we can then argue for the likes and API,” he said.

8 LUA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2023