Lori, e-Logistics Company Expands to Nigeria

Lori, e-Logistics Company Expands to Nigeria

Obinna Chima

Kenyan e-Logistics company, Lori, has officially announced its expansion to Nigeria in a bid to cement its footprint across Africa.

The company, which is the largest e-Logistics service provider in East Africa, was launched in Kenya in 2016, to seamlessly connect cargo owners to transport in frontier markets.

Speaking during an interview with journalists in Lagos, the Chief Operating Officer, Uche Ogboi, said: “Our mission in Nigeria is to create a more efficient logistics experience for cargo owners who are burdened with the task of moving their goods across the country.
“We have successfully created a digital platform to enable the movement of goods through a transparent supply chain management system that is affordable, reliable and flexible.”

According to her, over the past 10 months, Lori had completed a successful pilot in Nigeria with some of the country’s top cargo companies including Olam, Honeywell Flour Mills and Flour Mills Nigeria.

Ogboi, pointed out that the expansion to Nigeria presents a massive opportunity for Lori, as the company seeks to facilitate and connect technology innovation, smart policy and government partnership, and seamless operations to continue to lower the cost of goods.

“As Africa’s largest single market, Nigeria faces challenges with a congested port and a shortage of transport options,” she noted.
In July, Lori announced the appointment of new global leadership to drive the company’s expansion efforts across Africa.
“Lori is at the forefront of revolutionizing cargo transport across Africa from the ground up.

“As a digital marketplace and e-Logistics service provider, Lori provides value to clients in three key areas: technology, operational excellence, and customer service.

“For cargo owners, Lori offers reliability by working with high quality transporters who have been vetted, verified, successfully on-boarded, and constantly rated on performance.

“Lori is developing the most sophisticated technology tools available in market to package and deliver meaningful data to provide management teams with insights for better control.

“These tech tools also allow for better tracking with greater context for goods on journey. Ultimately, cost savings is achieved directly and indirectly with better end-to-end coordination with transporters,” Ogboi added.

According to her, for transporter partners, Lori optimises truck and asset utilisation for on-boarded trucks by up to five times through access to its pool of cargo owners and with quicker turn-around times and through our proactive loading and off-loading activities.

Furthermore, she pointed out that Lori also offers access to working capital in the form of fuel financing and insurance, with better payment terms, so that there is no delay in getting trucks on the road.

“Lori has also developed proprietary systems and software for automatic invoicing to relieve administrative burden.
“Lori’s mission is to solve the problem of high cost of goods across Africa where in certain countries, up to 75 per cent of the cost of a product on the continent is attributed to logistics, compared to only six per cent in the United State.

“The company aims to achieve this by eliminating customer pain points along the cargo journey with new technologies and superior user experience,” she added.

Anambra Woos Foreign Direct Investments
Dike Onwuamaeze
The Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA) is wooing investors to tap into the state’s rich opportunities in tourism, hospitality, real estate, agriculture, power and creative sectors.
The agency recently took its investment drive to the United States where it hosted two successful business summits in New York, on the sidelines of the recently concluded 2019 United Nations General Assembly meeting, and Washington DC.
The theme of the summit was “Finding Diamonds in the Rough.” It was meant for investors who have appetite for investment in Africa, Nigeria and Anambra State in particular, and have a preference for investing in the state.
The Managing Director of ANSIPPA, Mr. Jide Ikeako, in a report obtained by THISDAY, noted that the primary goal of the meetings was to showcase investment opportunities in Anambra State to global investors.
Ikeako, said ANSIPPA was seeking for domestic and foreign direct investment estimated at N2 billion for the development of Anambra Film Village (AFV), which is expected to generate an estimated N1.4 billion per annum in revenue.
Investment in the AFV would enable the growth of the domestic (local) film industry – Nollywood in Anambra and enhance an affordable for domestic Nollywood production International Standard (Cost efficient size and structure) with capacity to handle International movie production Site scalable for Expansion and Upgrade.
Ikeako, stated that ANSIPPA’s mission “is to create an incentive-focused investment climate for investors interested in different economic sectors in Anambra State.”
The business summits were a follow-up to the visit of Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano, to the City of Orange in New Jersey, United States, where he signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Mayor of the City of Orange in New Jersey, for mutual assistance in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, power in various forms and firefighting.
“The investment drive of ANSIPPA has attracted global leading brands in the hospitality industry like the Radison Hospitality and Golden Tulip which are managing the Onitsha Hotel and Agulu Lake Hotel respectively.
“In addition, the Century Power Generation Limited (CPG) Onitsha Transmission Line proposes to develop, build and operate a 50- 100MW gas-fired emergency power plant CPG will execute a long-term Power Purchase Agreement with Anambra State, backed by a state guarantee that the African Development Bank (AfDB) can support with a liquidity instrument,” he added.

Obaseki Earmarks N2bn for Single-digit Lending to MSMEs
James Emejo in Abuja

The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki has said his administration has provided the sum of N2 billion as credit facility at single digit interest rate to micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the state.
He said the move became necessary in order to drive the state’s economy through the contributions of small businesses.
Speaking at the Edo State Special Day at the on-going 2019 Abuja International Trade Fair (2019AITF) organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), the governor also said his administration had achieved 75 per cent job creation out of the 200,000 jobs that it had promised to create for its citizens.
Represented at the trade fair by the State Deputy Governor, Mr. Philip Shaibu, Obaseki said the administration was creating an enabling environment which is driven by the private sector to identify as well as build on talents among the youths.
He said: “It has been one of our cardinal pillars to develop our youths and we have arranged to give our young ones skills and these skills are not just for the artisans but also for graduates because you know they said some of our youths are not employable even when they have the certificates.
“So, we have created a skills acquisition programme both for artisans and graduate and we have created an artisan hub, what we call the industrial hub where you can come and establish your small businesses and there’s 24 hours power for you to optimise the benefits of creating something.”
He said: “For us in Edo State, you must earn a living and the only way we can earn a living is when you are skilled. Skilled labour is what we emphasise in Edo and we are not only emphasising it, we are creating it.”
Also, speaking at the exhibition, Edo State Commissioner for Wealth Creation, Mr. Felix Akhabue, told THISDAY that government was further making inroad into agriculture as well as teaching the youths new skills to make them successful in the sector.
He said:”We also have an agency called Edojobs, training our young ones on skills and we are also taking our people back to the farm because in the past, agriculture used to be that sector of the economy which used to engage majority but for a very long time, we have left that sector when we discovered crude oil.”
According to him: “As you know, the government of Edo State is doing a lot in the area of creation of jobs because if we don’t actively and consciously do things that will create jobs in our various states today in Nigeria, I may sure tomorrow we will not be able to close our eyes and sleep because there is so much unemployment.
“But the most unfortunate thing is that most of our young ones were trained as if white-collar jobs were going to be available for them when they leave school.
But the truth is that white-collar jobs are not available and they can’t be available.
“And you will find that like what is happening in the developed world today, it is the private sector that engage over 70 per cent of the population that are being employed.
Therefore, Nigeria must go that way and Edo State has started.
“We are looking at the private sector. We are already collaborating with the private sector, Edo state governments is creating the enabling environment for business to thrive: we are encouraging the SMEs in the state to the extent that.”

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