Jumia may claim to be Africa’s biggest eCommerce company by virtue of listing on the New York bourse but its biggest rival in Nigeria, Konga is, at least for the moment, focused on disrupting some other sectors of the Nigerian economy.
According to renown entrepreneur and Chairman of Zinox Group (99% owners of Konga), Leo Stan Ekeh, everyone should expect a disruption of Nigeria’s health sector in the next 6 months. He made this known at the
Africa FinTech Foundry (AFF) Disrupt Conference which held today.
“In the next six months, Konga is disrupting the health sector,” the self-proclaimed chief disrupter declared at the ongoing Disrupt 2019 event tagged: Digital Gold Rush; Building a Sustainable Tech Economy. The event is convened by Africa Foundry and sponsored by Access Bank.
Although the Zinox CEO didn’t give details, he nonetheless buttressed his company’s determination by reminding everyone how Konga disrupted the travel sector and is indeed reinventing itself.
Konga has indeed been on a roll since its acquisition by Zinox and consequent merger with Yudala. In January, the eCommerce giant announced a partnership with Visa with the aim of making online shopping seamless for online shoppers.
According to Konga’s CEO, Nick Imudia, with that partnership, Nigerians should expect a digitally-driven and effortless payment experience for all classes of customers on the Konga platforms.
“This development is not only momentous in view of its far-reaching implications for the growth of e-commerce in Nigeria, but one that will go a long way to boost customer experience and confidence in the sector,” Mr Imudia said.
Konga also introduced same-day delivery (a testament of its merger with Yudala) to its growing list of offerings while relaunching its pay-on-delivery service. It also took the travel sector by storm with Konga Travels and Tours.
But the reinvigorated eCommerce company clearly isn’t resting on its oars and, according to Mr Ekeh a man who’s part of key decision making in the company, has its sight firmly on Nigeria’s health sector.
Which sounds like good news by the way. Just as there’s a large population of financially secluded and underserved people, there’s also an unacceptably large population of people who are painfully underserved healthwise.
A recent report rates Nigeria as having one of the highest maternal mortality rate of 71.2 out of every 1,000. In 2017, Nigeria was reported with the third highest rate of infant mortality, being one of only five countries which accounted for at least half of the world’s new-born deaths.
More disturbing is the fact that some of the leading causes of death in the country are treatable.
Coupled with the problems of fake drugs, poor surgical equipments and medical facilities, it isn’t hard to see why Nigeria’s health sector is in dire need of disruption. Mr Leo Stan Ekeh’s declaration couldn’t have come at a better time.
And with the kind of resources Zinox Group is capable of investing in such a move for Konga, other actors and players in Healthtech should be ready for a major shakeup.
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