38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 2, 2014
E-Commerce
FG unveils ‘Mara Mentor’ to support young entreprenuers
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N a move to show re newed focus on entrepreneurship, federal government has rolled out ‘Mara Mentor ’ a mentoring technology application designed to ‘enable, empower and inspire’ young business leaders across the country. The app, launched in partnership with the Mara Foundation, a social enterprise set up to support budding young entrepreneurs in Africa, is used by the government to bolster the SME sector and boost job creation and further develop and diversify the region’s economy. President Jonathan made the announcement the Democracy Day celebrations in Abuja last week. President Jonathan said: “I am a firm believer in youth empowerment and support any efforts to drive our youth agenda forwards. The Mara Mentor app is a fantastic initiative, and I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Mara Foundation and its Founder, Ashish J Thakkar, for choosing Nigeria for the pilot launch in Africa.”
Airtel Nigeria introduces free access to Wikipedia
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IRTEL Nigeria has part nered with the Wikimedia Foundation to launch Wikipedia Zero to its subscribers in a move that will see 21 million users access free knowledge and information via their mobile phones minus data charges. Airtel Nigeria’s Chief Commercial Officer, Maurice Newa, said the new service will empower Nigerians with relevant knowledge and information so that they succeed in their daily personal and professional endeavors. “We are excited with our partnership with the Wikimedia Foundation and we will continue to provide innovative solutions that will uplift Nigerians in line with our brand promise of becoming the most loved brand in the daily lives of Nigerians,” he said. Newa added that Airtel is passionate and committed to creating solid educational and youth empowerment platforms that will enrich and transform the lives of telecoms consumers across the country. C M Y K
Offline retail is e-commerce’s greatest competition - Fashpa CEO Stories By JONAH NWOKPOKU
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HE founder/Chief Exec utive Officer of Fashpa.com, an exclusive online fashion merchant, Honey Ogundeyi has said that online retailers’ greatest competition is the offline market. She stated this during an exclusively interview with Vanguard on the operations of Fashpa.com and the state and future of e-commerce in Nigeria. “In terms of competition there is lot of sites still coming up online, offering fashion but our real competition is in the offline market where we see a lot of people going to buy from. So offline market can be considered a strong competition,” she said. She noted that for Fashpa.com, as far as competition is concerned, “We basically benchmark ourselves against what our customers want. And I think the opportunity lies in serving real fashion conscious customers; and we are lucky that we are the first to offer fashion, the way that we do and mix both fashion e-commerce and fashion content.” Explaining the offerings of Fashpa.com, she said: “Fashpa is an online fashion retailer. We are one of the leading fashion retailers in Nigeria and Africa. And basically, we are dedicated to providing our users with access to fashion and lifestyle brands. If you know Nigerians, and Africans in general, we love fashion, and lifestyle and what we are trying to do at Fashpa is give
people better access to that. “Our online platform sells clothes, footwear, and other accessories. We ship to all states in Nigeria. We also ship worldwide. What we do is we look at fashion trends, and we sell international high street brands that people are looking for. We also sell African brands. We also have our labels which is Fashpa.com. Apart from that, we also know that our customers are also interested in fashion contents, so we also give them fashion and lifestyle tips.” She explained that Fashpa has been making significant
efforts to blend the offline and online experiences just to serve and adapt the online shopping culture to the Nigerian market, through unique payment channels and prompt delivery systems. “People still like the feeling of seeing and touching goods before purchase. So what we do is we try to understand and we allow our customers to get the item and we offer them cash on delivery. So you can send you up to three items in different sizes and you try them on and we will wait for you to try it on and then take it. So what we are trying to do is to bring
a lot of things that people like from shopping offline to the online experience,” she said. “And I think what is interesting about developing online platform is that you can’t just apply what happens in Europe and America to this market. So, you have to adapt it and make it relevant to our Nigerian and African customer,” she added. Ogundeyi further explained that Fashpa’s idea of worldwide delivery was inspired by the need to get Nigerians and other Africans in the Diaspora, to stay connected with their culture through fashion.
AGM: From left; Chief Emmanuel Ukpabi, former president; Mr. Sunil Sawhney, immediate Past Vice President; Mr. Paul Gbededo, newly elected President and Mr. Aderemi Adegboyega, Executive Secretary at the 35th Annual General Meeting of the Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers.
Kaymu empowers youths with entrepreneurship training T
O celebrate this year ’s Children’s Day, Nigeria’s online marketplace Kaymu.com.ng treated students of Kiddie Quest Montessori to a workshop titled Kaymu Future Entrepreneurs Training. The company said it unveiled the initiative because it is committed to driving the development of entrepreneurship, especially small and medium enterprises in the country. This,it said, has led to the
brand putting strategic measures in place to drive entrepreneurship in youths, like the Kaymu Entrepreneurial Workshop conducted in universities and the KaymuVarsity initiative for SMEs. ” We believe that children are future leaders, with unique passions and aspirations and will like to give entrepreneurial children the ability to observe first-hand the work space and engage them in practical activities that the work environment
presents,” stated Massimiliano Spalazzi, Managing Director of Kaymu.com.ng To this end, Kaymu hosted ten children from Kiddie Quest Montessori School to work a half day in Kaymu office on Tuesday, May 27th for an educative, interactive and engaging training and practical session. Speaking on the opportunity, the Deputy Head Girl of the school, Olubukola Falayajo expressed her gratitude at the opportunity pre-
sented through the Kaymu Future Entreprenueur Training. “It was a great experience and we learned a lot about being an entrepreneur and the qualities of a successful entrepreneur,” she said. Also speaking, Head Teacher of the school, Rotimi Akapo said,”It is an insightful initiative by Kaymu and a very educative and captivating experience for primary school children.”