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Konga, Yudala: Partnership to Unlock eCommerce in Africa

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E-commerce in Africa has remained a tough nut to crack.

 

Despite significant optimism of an unprecedented upsurge in global e-commerce spend which is widely expected to gross $4.058 trillion or 14.6% of total retail spending by 2020, e-commerce in Nigeria and on the African continent is still largely untapped.

 

Till date, majority of players in the sector are locked in a battle of attrition in their bid to turn profitable. Many others have lost the battle and quietly exited the scene. The list of such failed ventures is seemingly endless.

 

Recently, an operational merger between two e-commerce giants, Konga and Yudala was announced – a piece of news that has dominated headlines for the past one week.

 

According to the official announcement released by the management of both companies, the business merger, which takes effect from Tuesday May 1st 2018, will see both companies operate under the Konga brand name and with dual CEOs in the persons of Nick Imudia who will be in charge of online among others and Prince Nnamdi Ekeh who will be responsible for the offline arm of the business.

 

Founded in 2012, Konga has featured prominently in the news in the past couple of months following its acquisition by Nigerian tech giants, Zinox Group, after months of intense negotiation with the company’s erstwhile majority investors, Naspers and AB Kinnevik.

 

A merger between Konga and Yudala is a master strategy that undoubtedly has the potential of finally cracking the e-commerce bug in Nigeria and beyond.

 

Here are five reasons why:

Strongest e-commerce force in Africa

The merger between Konga and Yudala has ultimately transformed the new Konga brand into a strong e-commerce group, arguably the biggest on the African continent.

 

By virtue of the shared resources that will naturally benefit the brand from the merger including sheer size, human resources capacity, massive warehousing capabilities, increased reach and wider array of products, services and offerings at its disposal, industry watchers and other experts are unanimous in their position that Konga can finally rise as an e-commerce force that can rival some of the world’s biggest such as Amazon and Alibaba.

 

Improved customer experience

One of the major obstacles that has prevented e-commerce from taking off in Nigeria is shoddy customer experience.

With Konga and Yudala merging operations, there is renewed hope for the average customer, especially when one considers a fusion of Konga’s world-class online platform and Yudala’s ubiquitous network of physical stores.

Both platforms are efficient, highly responsive and respectively best in class in the industry. With this merger, perhaps, the time has come to look forward to a highly improved shopping experience, one that has largely eluded many in the industry.

 

Cutting-edge Technology

Konga is primarily a technology company, one that has invested heavily in technology and crucially reliant on cutting-edge tech to drive its operations.

By merging forces with Yudala, another technology-driven business and leveraging on the huge access to technology at the disposal of its parent company, the Zinox Group, there is a golden opportunity to improve the ease and convenience of the shopping experience, a factor that has recurrently featured as one of the pain-points of e-commerce.

Through the deployment of technology in automating most of the processes that have previously encumbered shoppers, including products classification, stocking, check-outs, logistics and delivery, among others, a fresh dawn seems imminent for e-commerce in Nigeria.

Should the new brand live up to expectations by deploying a predominantly automated, user-friendly range of cutting-edge tech solutions, it will succeed in creating a frictionless e-commerce experience that will set a standard for the continent.

 

Better logistics/delivery

Many e-commerce companies across Africa leave a lot to be desired when it comes to service level expectations in logistics/delivery.

Items take days or even weeks to get to the final user, even in urban city centres, leading to a situation in which many potential shoppers would rather prefer to visit a physical/brick-and-mortar store to purchase or personally pick-up their items.

In Konga Express, Konga boasts an excellent logistics company with advanced delivery capabilities for internal and external customers.

Through the expected new investment that will come in through the Yudala merger, shoppers can finally look forward to a more reliable delivery option. Further lending a sense of excitement is the multiple pick-up locations which Yudala’s nationwide network of store locations offers.

 

Overcoming distrust by cracking mobile payments

Trust remains a major issue that has kept e-commerce in Africa from reaching its much-vaunted potential.

A number of potential shoppers are wary of scams, a legitimate concern which prevents many from disclosing their credit/debit card/financial information and buying online.

Although Konga announced a ban on payment on delivery (POD) before its acquisition by the Zinox Group, there are possibilities that this policy could be rescinded in the light of the merger with Yudala.

Furthermore, through Konga Pay, a CBN-licensed mobile money platform, Konga has a fitting tool with which to crack the mobile payment bug.

By positioning Konga Pay prominently as a secure platform and doing the hard work at the back-end to assure online transactions are effortlessly and safely carried out, e-commerce may just be on the verge of exploding in Nigeria and beyond.

 


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Nigeria CommunicationsWeek believes that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. So since 2007, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and how they affect lives.

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E-Business

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

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Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.

Microsoft Servers Hacked by Chinese Groups

 

China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.

The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.

“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.

It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.

Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.

Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.

Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.

A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.

“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.

Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.

Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.

It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.

Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.

 

 

 


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NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

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National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.

NIMC Warns Nigerians of Fake NIN Website

According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.

NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”

The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.


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NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

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National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in partnership with the Advocacy for Policy and Innovation (API), has convened a one-day workshop in Abuja to advance dialogue on the draft Online Harm Protection (OHP) Bill to confront harmful online content.

NITDA, API Partner Against Harmful Online Content

The bill, a rights-based, locally rooted, and multi-stakeholder initiative, is aimed at addressing the challenges of the digital age.

The event, which held yesterday, brought together government officials, civil society, academics, digital platforms, and legal experts to shape a policy framework designed to combat online ills such as cyberbullying, disinformation, hate speech, digital exploitation, and gender-based violence, while safeguarding democratic freedoms and digital inclusion.

In his keynote remarks, Kashifu Inuwa, director general, NITDA urged a paradigm shift in the way society engages with digital technologies.

“For almost two decades, we have viewed digital technology through a consumer lens. But these technologies are not just products and services. They are transforming how we live, work, and interact. They shape our politics, our society, and our democracy,” he said.

Warning against unaccountable digital power in the hands of private corporations, the DG likened the digital journey to the tale of Alice in Wonderland, where initial fascination with innovation has given way to deeper concerns about privacy, autonomy, and manipulation by big tech platforms.

“We thought we were using Google, but now we realise Google is using us. Social media, once a tool of expression, has become a tool of surveillance and influence,” Inuwa noted.

He, therefore, emphasised the urgency of developing a democratic and accountable framework.  He explained that following the 2021 Twitter ban, NITDA facilitated dialogue between the government and platform operators, leading to a Code of Practice that stressed Nigeria’s sovereignty and legal standards.

According to him, the same process birthed the multi-stakeholder steering committee and the OHP White Paper in December 2024, laying the foundation for the current legislative push.

Earlier in her opening remarks,  Victoria Manya, co-founder, API, observed the moral and civic necessity of the bill.

Her words: “The internet did not break society, it merely revealed its unfiltered version. Every day, Nigerians are exposed to harassment, disinformation, exploitation, and even algorithmic violence. The OHP Bill is not a war on the Internet. It is a peace offering to its users, a social contract for a digital future that is safe, inclusive, and democratic.

“We cannot answer the question of algorithmic power with unchecked state control. We must answer it with shared, rights-based governance. This bill must not be written for the people, but with them.”


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