Djalee finance

Informal retail is dominant across sub-Saharan Africa. Its size and scale are immense: it contributes $2.6 trillion to the region’s nominal GDP, drives $1 trillion in annual sales, and provides 80% of jobs. Informal retailers sell 80% of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) to African households. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), 90% of retail transactions in Africa happen through informal channels. These informal transactions account for 70% of retail transactions in Western African Economic Union Monetary ( WAEMU).

Despite informal retail’s importance in driving commerce and economic activity, it is uncoordinated, fragmented, and unstructured. Multiple players exist in retail supply chains – manufacturers, distributors, sub-distributors, logistics providers, and retailers – but they operate in silos. Supply is disconnected from demand. The breakdown in supply chains results from the difficulty in reaching retailers, and ultimately, customers. Distribution networks – making sure your product is within easy reach of customers – are costly to build. They require warehouses, logistics fleets, and staff.

In Ivory Coast, proximity to the customer is everything. With their deep pockets, large manufacturers have built their own distribution channels to reach retailers. Multinational FMCG companies, like Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Nestle, have invested heavily in their own distributor networks. They supply inventory on credit and lease fleets. Yet, given the great expense of direct distribution, even the FMCG giants only sell 30% of their goods via their own networks; the remaining 70% is sold via sub-distributors.

This is where informal retail enters a black box. Wholesalers, which cluster in feeder markets like Adjame  in Abidjan  separate supply from demand. There are no direct links between FMCG manufacturers and the end buyers (the retailers). 

This leads to a host of problems. Unable to directly access retailers, manufacturers are in the dark when it comes to market trends and product performance. They lack visibility on demand and stock in trade. Lacking market research, they can’t introduce new products or do promotions. Manufacturers can’t use discounts to drive sales for a particular product as the wholesaler is likely to eat the margin.

Large distributors also lose in fragmented supply chains. They struggle to reach retailers and don’t know about product performance – are customers buying more X and less Y in a certain area? Should they cut back or increase the supply of Z ? This limits their turnover of inventory to strain their already stretched working capital. They can’t count on reliable logistics, either.

Yet, the retailer bears the brunt of the disjointed supply chain. Retailers – the vast majority of whom are women – have to travel to the wholesale market to stock up on their  minerals, soap, and other staples that make up their 100 SKU inventory. Not only do they incur the cost of transport, but they also have to close shop for the day and lose business. The problems don’t end there. Retailers travel all the way the market, only to discover that wholesalers have run out of some key items. After a costly trip to purchase quantities of 10 items, a retailer might return with a stock of 5 or 6 items. 

Step 1: Registration

A retailer, a supplier, an agent as well financial institution opens a business account in Djalee platform by using their names and phone number. The phone number is the main ID for this platform.

 Step 2: Place an order

A retailer can place an order by using retailer app or place a call to manager or go to agent store to place an order. The retailer can choose first product from products list and the assign a supplier or sent the product list in the platform. In this second case, any supplier can accept the order.

Step 3: Payment of the order

The retailer can pay by cash and or any existing mobile money on the market. The retailer can also request a financing from Djalee financial institution partner for a particular order.

 In the case of the financing, Djalee team makes first analysis of the request and forward to relevant partner. The partner can approve the funding request or reject. When approved, the financial institution directly paid the supplier, and the order is delivered to the retailer business place.

 Step 4 : Delivery

 The supplier delivers the order to the retailer business place by choosing a registered transport company in the platform.

 Step 5: Reimbursement

In case of any funding from our partner, the retailer will use an existing wallet to make the reimbursement to the partner.

As described in the problem section , all distributors , suppliers and retailers from informal economics are served by our solution/plateforme. 

Djalee has a winning and complementary skills team with various background and we are confident that we will deliver the most value added to our customers.

2 distributors along with 60 wholesalers and more than 200 small businesses are registrated in our platform.

We want to become a solver champion and also leverage on the network provided by MIT solver .

See our pitch deck

see pitch deck

see pitch deck