African Business Stories
African Business Stories is the go-to podcast for insights into the women shaping Africa’s business landscape. Africa is one of the world’s most promising frontiers for growth and innovation—and women are at the heart of this transformation.
Hosted by Akaego Okoye, this podcast spotlights female entrepreneurs who are breaking barriers, scaling businesses, and driving economic development across the continent. Through bold conversations, we explore funding, scaling strategies, digital transformation, and industry innovations—equipping you with insights, practical tools, and inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey.
When women win, economies thrive. These stories amplify success, challenge narratives, and create a blueprint for the next generation of female leaders in Africa and beyond.
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African Business Stories
Kikelomo Fola-Ogunniya: CO-Founder, Cargoplug Logistics - From Car Trunks to Cargo Hubs: Building Proprietary Tech for Global Trade
Kikelomo Fola-Ogunniya's entrepreneurial journey proves that sometimes the most successful businesses begin by solving your own problems. What started as a simple solution to cross-border shopping frustrations has evolved into Cargo Plug, a tech-enabled logistics company transforming how African businesses connect to global markets.
When Kike and her co-founder Ama couldn't find reliable ways to ship purchases from the UK to Nigeria, they created their own solution. Operating from the trunks of their cars during lunch breaks from their oil industry jobs, they bootstrapped a side hustle that would eventually become a full-fledged international logistics company. Their company, initially called Jand to Gidi, has since evolved into CargoPlug, offering comprehensive shipping solutions from virtually any country to Nigeria and vice versa.
What makes their story remarkable isn't just business growth, but the sustainability of their partnership. In an ecosystem where co-founder relationships often fracture under pressure, Kike and Ama have maintained a thriving partnership for 13 years. Their secret? Clear role definition based on natural strengths, transparent communication, and unwavering trust.
The Cargo Plug journey offers practical wisdom for entrepreneurs everywhere. They diligently tracked financials from day one, which positioned them perfectly when seeking funding opportunities. They've weathered economic fluctuations, a global pandemic, and technological shifts while continuously evolving their services. Most impressively, they've built proprietary technology in-house, including user dashboards and shipping APIs that integrate with global platforms.
Through their 'RICE' core values – Reliable, Intelligent, Customer-focused, and Exciting – they've created a company culture that keeps team members engaged for years, some approaching a decade with the company. Their story stands as powerful evidence that African entrepreneurs can build sustainable, tech-enabled businesses that solve real problems while creating meaningful economic opportunity.
ABS WEBSITE: www.africanbusinessstories.com
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With more female entrepreneurs than any other region in the world. Women are at the heart of Africa's transformation. Welcome to African Business Stories, the show that amplifies the voices of female entrepreneurs shaping Africa's business landscape. I'm your host, ekego Koye. Here we explore bold ideas, strategies for scaling and the realities of building businesses that drive economic development. These stories will provide insights into Africa's business landscape, practical tools for growth and the inspiration to navigate your own entrepreneurial journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share. Neural journey. Be sure to subscribe, rate and share On the show. Today I chat with Kike Lamont Fola, ogunian, co-founder of Cargo Plug, a tech-enabled logistics company that's redefining cross-border shipping for African businesses. What began as a side hustle called Jan to Giddy has grown into a full-fledged business with global reach, proprietary technology and recognition from CNN. We talk about Kike's journey from law to logistics, bootstrapping through uncertainty, building with a co-founder and transforming a personal pain point into a thriving venture. It's a conversation about vision, resilience and building with intention. Let's get into it, hi, kike. Welcome to African Business Stories, hi.
Speaker 2:Ego. Thank you so much for having me. Glad to be here to share my story.
Speaker 1:Awesome. It's so good to be able to sit down with you and talk about your business and your journey. I feel like I've been following your story for what may be 10, 11 years now I don't even know how long but it's amazing to have watched your business grow and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to share your story with the world. I think you and Amma have done incredible and yeah so I can't wait to get into it, but I always start from the very beginning. So if you and Amar have done incredible, and yeah so I can't wait to get into it, but I always start from the very beginning. So if you can just share a little bit about where you grew up, some fond memories from when, from way back in the day, I'm assuming that you were born in Lagos, but you know you can correct me if I'm wrong, but where were you?
Speaker 2:born. Okay, thank you, ego. Yeah, I was actually born in the UK. Oh, there you go, yeah, but I didn't grow up there from the uk, came to lagos as a baby. I've lived most of my life here, so primary school, secondary school, and then went to the uk back to the uk for school, for university, for a level university and my master's. Then came back to nigeria to do law school, which is where we met and, yeah, here we are several years later and sharing our stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, fond memories. I was the only girl out of four children, I think that kind of shaped and I was the first child of my mom and that kind of shaped me into, I think, leading the path. And then, as far as childhood memories go, I think I just remember having, I think, mr Biggs. It's funny, mr Biggs was one of the major highlights or something that we always report, so my dad would always take us there at the weekends and that was just something that I felt like I should form. Another tradition, like similar tradition with my own daughter. Now I just remember many happy moments like us playing, just playing with reckless abandon, and I got that from my mom. She's very playful, but, of course, when it comes to discipline, there's time for everything and my dad is the ultimate disciplinarian. He was in the military, so you can imagine we definitely needed that balance that my mom, brought.
Speaker 2:those are the kind of fond memories I have from growing up with my brothers and just being a girly girl, but being a tomboy at the same time, and then just coming into my own now as a girly girl.
Speaker 1:I remember the donut from Mr Biggs. I still think that's the best donut. I think it's still in here till today. I cannot wait to try it again, because I've tried so many donuts. Nothing is as good as Mr Biggs donut. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. So what inspired you to study law?
Speaker 2:my half sister was a law, is a lawyer, okay, and that kind of was my first introduction to law, I know. Growing up there was a picture of her in her wig and gown and I just thought, oh gosh, she looks so beautiful. And then I think maybe my personality just led me to law. I honestly don't remember the point at which I said, okay, it's law I'm going to study. But I just know I've always been a humanities student. I'm from secondary school, I was good in government subjects like that, english, etc. So I think naturally after my in fact before my A-levels, I already knew I wanted to do an A-levels that was law-based. So of course, from there I obviously went into undergrad for law. So I think it just happened, but I'm still glad it happened. What did your career look?
Speaker 1:like after law school.
Speaker 2:So after law school, of course, so as we don't disappoint our parents the first thing was obviously to look for a law firm. But during my NYC I worked in an oil company. I worked in the HR department, just happened. I don't even know how I landed there, but that's where I ended up doing HR. But of course I already knew that after NYSE, if I wasn't retained which wasn't likely I was going to go into a law firm. So I started applying, went to the best of the best law firms for interviews etc. And I finally started working at ALEX, which is one of the top law firms in Nigeria. So I worked there as a lawyer, as an associate, for about two years, and my practice area in particular was IP, so intellectual property. I didn't really know much about it when I joined, but of course, by the time I left ALEKS I was a different kind of person. I was a different kind of lawyer. I learned so much under the tutelage of my partner at the time. Our partner, mr Emua, and the rest of my colleagues ALEKS shaped me as well Coming out of school.
Speaker 2:I struggled at first, though, because I think I preferred school law to actual practice, even though I didn't actually go to court, the actual practice of understanding how best to respond to clients' emails, how to tackle, how to approach or answer clients' questions, et cetera. Those made the formative years of my legal career and I thought I was going to really excel in the legal space. But of course I did for the time that. I was there for two years and then moved on to something else For me. Honestly, by the second year I think I was already I realized that I really didn't really like law in practice, and so when the opportunity came to go into oil service, back into the oil industry, I jumped at the opportunity.
Speaker 1:You finished at ALEX. You joined this oil service company and just from researching I know that the idea for a business came while you were there. So just talk us through what led you to conceive this idea of starting Jan to Gidi, as your business was called then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when we joined, when I joined the oil service company, I had my friend introduced me to the company actually Ama, who is now my co-founder and she had told me that they were recruiting.
Speaker 2:I'd already said to her that I was looking for a job. I was looking for something else and she said, oh, there's a vacancy in her organization and I thought, okay, I would apply. And I did and I got the job. So that's when we got closer. She was already working there in a different department, in the engineering department, so I joined training services. I was a project support coordinator. I needed my legal skills as well. Of course. I applied my legal skills in that space, but just that it wasn't at the forefront. But yeah, when I joined, we would always ask. I know at this time Amma had also come back from uni in the UK, same as myself, so we already had started asking for friends and traveling relatives coming back. I know that when we were in law school I didn't have enough time to even shop for law school black and white outfits. I didn't even have enough time because I was rounding up my master's and rushing back to Nigeria for my law school, so I didn't have enough of the black and white, and then you just always asked if anybody was coming back. So the problem started there from when I first landed in Nigeria. Within a few weeks I realized, oh my goodness, I don't have enough black and white outfits. And we were stuck in Bwari, which is a village in Abuja. I had no idea where to shop, even in Lagos. Back then I didn't know where to shop. I didn't know where to buy anything. So immediately the problem started where can I get goods from? And my only I, my only thought as an adult that had spent seven years in the UK, was shop from the UK. I already had the stores I was accustomed to that were my favorites, and I just wanted to keep the habits. We'll start asking for traveling friends and relatives. And we realized in a short period of time there was a headache. Finding someone who was willing to carry a package for you was a problem. Even finding a way to pay for your goods was a problem. So carry a package for you was a problem. Even finding a way to pay for your goods was a problem. So this was already a problem before I even joined this organization.
Speaker 2:Now, when I joined, I found someone else who had the same problem that I had. So we had a pain of shopping and just wanting to wear something for a wedding, a pair of shoes and back then there were shippers, but then they would charge maybe high minimum wage, or there wasn't any tracking. You couldn't see what was happening. The person I found seemed like he was doing me a favor. The customer service was zero and it was just like okay, I'll pick up your goods or send your goods to me whenever I should get it.
Speaker 2:So Anna and I thought, no, this can't, there has to be a better way of doing this. So we ordered an item from a company who delivered to Nigeria at the time, and we walked backwards and found out that if these people could do it, obviously we can do it for ourselves and obviously started business from there. We're like, okay, this was exactly the statement that started it. It's been let's try and solve this problem, and that was how we started. During our lunch break, we started coming up with the idea of starting something to solve that UK to Nigeria problem, and that was where the name Jand to Gidi came up. So of course, jand means UK and Gidi means Nigeria, lagos, but in our context, nigeria as a whole. That's where Jand to Gidi came up and of course at the time we just thought UK to Nigeria solve that problem and we had no plans of doing anything outside of the UK to Nigeria.
Speaker 1:So how was it starting up and working full-time? What did that look like for you?
Speaker 2:guys. It looked like a headache trying to balance everything and for me, I had just gotten married, okay, so I was balancing a new home, a new business, a new partnership with Ama and also, obviously, doing my day job nine to five. So how we looked was we created an instagram page. Thankfully, instagram was still. We loved instagram back then because everybody that followed you could see your content. Now algorithm has changed everything, yeah, but anyways, yeah, we started the instagram page, put out contents just saying contact us for your deliveries from the uk to nigeria.
Speaker 2:Now, because we knew we had a day job, we put that SMS only or email only, but of course, once there's a show number, people are going to call you and of course, we had to be accountable to our clients. So we'll do what we can. Maybe return calls at our lunch break, schedule meetings for our lunch break. We come to the office to have meetings with our partners, but we'll do that during our lunch break or after office hours. Now, we started as a pet project, so Alma and I would test with our own shipments shipments for family and friends and then gradually, we started gaining the confidence and understanding the system, and then that was when we started launching the business on Instagram and so on. Now, when the packages arrived, back then we would be upstairs, but then we had our cars where our offices at the time, so we would deliver. We would just open, press your key, open up your car from upstairs. The delivery company knows what to do. Our partners that brought the goods in already know.
Speaker 2:No way Drop the packages, come upstairs with the proof of delivery, we'll sign everything and go back to work. Wow, and then after work, we would then find delivery companies, and back then this was 2013 when we started. In 2013, there weren't that many delivery companies as we have now. So sometimes Ama and I honestly would just jump in the car and go and do deliveries ourselves, especially if they were on the island.
Speaker 2:We had an official email, something jantagidi at gmailcom and then, in a short while, of course, we had info at jantaginicomng made everything official, had a website and literally everybody who knew us knew that we had a new business and that we're solving the UK to Nigeria problem, and our job was just to get the word out. There we're shouting from the rooftops everything that we did and that was how we built our first, I think, 1000 followers on Instagram and continue to build till today.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. So you co-founded this business with Ama, who is your friend. I've interviewed so many women, so many business owners in the past and we talk about co-founder success or co-founder breakup, and you know what that can be like. You guys have been together now for what? Going on? 13 years. Yeah, what's that journey been like? Are there some lessons you've learned from building with a co-founder who also happens to be your friend?
Speaker 2:Both We've learned so much from each other and I think the key thing that I think still holds us together till date is trust and that communication, trust, communication and, I think, transparency. So at the beginning, right from the start, we already knew as I joined as a lawyer, she's an engineer we already knew we had strength. So, personally, assess yourselves. What exactly are you bringing to the table? Math, mathematics, in fact, I can't stand numbers. I don't know whether that's a law thing or just I don't know what it is, it probably is Kike, so of course we knew she would be the numbers person.
Speaker 2:So, tracking of customers' data we had an Excel spreadsheet. So if Ego was getting 10 kg from the UK, we would write it there. Ego coin 10 kg, we would write how much it cost us. So, there, kg, we will write how much it cost us. So there was a formula how much it cost, how much the customer paid, what the profit was, how much we paid for the last mile delivery, so the bike that came to pick up and then understand exactly how much a transaction cost. Now we had a sheet per month.
Speaker 2:From the beginning we understood the need to keep records. Yes, and I don't even think we're being intentional about it. I think it was just from a place of let's actually know what the business is doing. It wasn't like oh, we need to keep records. Yes, and I don't even think we're being intentional about it. I think it was just from a place of let's actually know what the business is doing. It wasn't like, oh, we need to be calculated. Nothing was calculated. You can tell even from the name we gave ourselves. We didn't think that we're going to last as long as we have to be very honest, we just did the right things because we sought wise counsel. So we had an accountant in our office at the beginning. Just ask questions, who can offer you free services? So we had an accountant in our office At the beginning. Just ask questions, who can offer you free services? So we asked an accountant okay, how can? We already had a makeshift thing. But he helped us beef it up with all these formulas, amazing formulas Okay, you can't touch this cell, don't touch that cell, just impute things in this cell. And they need to calculate everything. And little did we know that X number of years down the line. Those things helped us get a loan, for example from Lagos State, because we had our records intact.
Speaker 2:So yeah, back to the relationship between Anna Amma and I. That trust was always there. From the beginning. Everything was 50-50. We contributed 50% each to register the business, get our first promotional materials, and those are the major costs we had. Remember we were working out of the boots of our cars and whatever costs we bore to our partners, whether international partners or local partners, we already incurred. We passed them on to the customer. So we didn't have that many costs. We just made sure we saved. We didn't pay ourselves anything at the time and it reinvested everything back into the business.
Speaker 2:So, being partners with my friend, oh yeah, how we've been able to maintain the relationship. It's about having split roles. That's where I was going Having split roles. I was more like the person that had the that organized the templates, the template emails that go out, the terms and conditions. I reviewed everything. When something goes wrong, okay, let's go and add it to the terms and conditions. Viewed everything. When something goes wrong, we're like okay, let's go and add it in terms and conditions. When we learn a new thing, let's go and add it in terms and conditions. So that was my. That resided with me and I would obviously continue with the calculations, et cetera, and negotiations with our partners.
Speaker 1:So when did you then decide to leave your full-time job and face it fully?
Speaker 2:I think it was a year or a year plus into our nine to fives the company decided to pull out of Nigeria. So Amma's department wasn't doing as well or they didn't have that many projects at the time, so they tried to pull out of Nigeria. And when they made that decision, I still had a job, so I had three months. I was still on for three months, but the business still carried on and Jan Tugidi, as it was now, was really growing. And then next thing, my own department pulled out as well. So it was now was really growing. And then next thing, my own department pulled out as well. So it was like, okay, are we going to get paid employment or are we going to face chance to get it full time? At that point, we had obviously generated some amount of revenue and had to make the decision one way or the other Based on the traction we had built at the time.
Speaker 2:This was 2030, end of 2014. We thought, okay, let's see how this goes for a year. So we decided to go in full time for a year and then, if it didn't work out, after a year and at this time, actually, other ama also got married the same year she got married in december of 2013. I got married february of 2013 and so it was a new year. We're like, okay, no, it was just one year in. And they were like, okay, let's decide. We decided, okay, do it for a year. If it doesn't work out to go back into paid employment, being out for a year wouldn't be so bad. It would still be to find something and, to the glory of god, we haven't looked back since 2015 that we went full-time. Wow, got our office space and everything, yeah. So that's how we set up full-time.
Speaker 1:Congratulations on that, yeah. So let's talk about funding and what your funding journey has been like. So you both started this business in 2013. What did the startup grants and investor space look like for you in the early days?
Speaker 2:Back then we started with our own savings. There wasn't much in terms of. In fact, we were shying away from investors. At the time, somebody was interested in funding our business, but I think it's lack of, I think it's ignorance on our part. I'm just being scared of losing the business. We were shielded. No, we're not interested. We're not interested.
Speaker 2:We went to approach someone to help us with I think it was marketing, some kind of digital marketing. He was an expert at it. Oh, he wants a stake when we're not giving any stake to anybody. In hindsight, with the benefit of hindsight, we should have probably opened our doors and at least listened to the opportunities that these parties presented, but we just protected the business, and I think that's one of the things that we probably have going for us. We'd never know what would have happened if we did take other people's money, but at the time, we just focused on plowing money, but on bootstrapping generate revenue, put it back in the business, generate and put it back in the business. At some point started paying ourselves a salary, but never. It was never. Something that we decided to pay was after we now got this. The accountant I said we were working with that was in our company when we're all made redundant. He came on board as our finance consultant. Fantastic yeah, and he's still with us, still today.
Speaker 2:He's still our finance consultant we have an in-house accounting service, but he's still our finance consultants managing our books and just keeping us compliant. So, yeah, shout out to fdi consulting, yeah. So funding, yeah, was generally bootstrapped till 2021. Uh, no, till 2017, when we got the lagos state loan. From the lagos state, yeah, lagos state employment trust fund. We got five million naira and for us it was a huge. It was a big deal at the time when Lagos states funded us, or rather, gave us the loan.
Speaker 2:We added to our fleets. Now this was 2017 and we didn't know 2020, covid year, was coming, wow. So we added to the fleet and all of a sudden, three years later, our major source of revenue, which were imports, had to go on hold. There were no international flights, so we had to now fall back to our second in quotes, second in command, local deliveries, and that was what really kept us going through COVID. So imagine we didn't have that fleet. We don't know what would have happened. So we're just grateful for the loan that Lsctf gave to us, which we fully paid. In fact, we paid by 2020 because, of the three year loan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, three year loan at five percent. So it was nice and easy for us to pay to return the money after that. We also got grants here and there. We got a grant from variant and by advisory, you apply, present yourself, present your numbers, and then they give you the grant. We also won a pitching competition from NESG, nigerian Economic Summit Group. Yeah, so we won that in Abuja and then we had a family and friends round. So we're like okay, this is what we've done. Are you willing to put your money behind us? So we approached family and friends. And let's not forget that even if you're approaching family and friends, you still need to come correct.
Speaker 2:You can't just go and say, oh, I have this hobby I'm doing. No, we had a registered company. Oh, at that time, we had a business name, actually, because at the beginning, we just said let's just do something quick. So we did a business name. But then Then, when it was time to take on family and friends, we transitioned into a limited liability company.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we had our corporate governance in place, we had our corporate structure in place, presented our numbers and showed our business plan, etc. And that was how we were able to raise $100,000 from family and friends. Wow, that's $100,000?. Yeah, dollars, yes, please. Fantastic. So that was the first opportunity. After that, we got into an accelerator. In fact, we got into two accelerators. The first was Startup Bootcamp, in 2023. We got into Startup Bootcamp, accelerator, and then, recently, techstars. So Techstars working from DC. So that's how we kind of raised funds continue to bootstrap, continue to invest more in the business and continue to look for how to boost our revenues, rather than always waiting on external funding. Having said that, though, we're definitely open to funding opportunities, but, of course, in the immediate, we're just focusing on boosting revenues, improving efficiency and tightening up our operations.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing that in such detail, kike. I think our listeners appreciate that, especially women or people men and women who are building and exploring what funding looks like. So in 2023, that was when, at your 10th anniversary, you announced a major rebrand. You went from Jan Tegidi to Cargo Plug. So what inspired this transformation?
Speaker 2:So we realized that obviously Jan Tegidi no longer represented who we were. We had started doing deliveries from the US, from Canada, china, turkey, all over the world, basically to Nigeria, and started doing exports, local deliveries, all sorts of things. We became a one-stop shop for deliveries into, out of and within Nigeria. So early on I think even from our third year we realized that the name no longer suited our purposes. But at the time Jantini was still so cool, it was still gaining momentum, so we didn't want to kill it at that time. But when it came to the 10-year milestone we thought, okay, it's time for us to move on and give ourselves a better name that now represented who we were and where we were going.
Speaker 2:So Cargo Plug just seemed like the perfect name because it just represents that we're your plug for anything cargo. So, driven by our vision for growth and to have a stronger reputation in international logistics, we were going to reposition for B2B customers and we realized that going to B2B to pitch, going to maybe a multinational to pitch Jan to Giddy, just didn't sit well. So we had to come up with a stronger name that represented exactly who we were. So yeah, cargo plug. We're bigger, better, more capacity, more confidence, ready for bigger transactions. Basically, that's fantastic.
Speaker 1:So earlier on we're talking about the accelerator programs that you got into. You mentioned it so briefly, but I want to drill down a little bit more. So recently you got into the Techstars DC Accelerator Program. Congrats to both of you. So what was that experience like and what were your big takeaways from doing that program?
Speaker 2:Oh, ok, it was intense. So it was three months in September, from September of 2024. And it was just focused on having a growth strategy. That was one of the key things we wanted from Techstars actually access to their network, and then that handholding because we're just coming into tech, so we built a tech team internally. We're just coming into tech, so we built a tech team internally. We're just coming into tech.
Speaker 2:We had built our dashboards easy to use dashboards that could power our logistics services, because in the past our processes were pretty manual, so we built our tech in-house and also built shipping apis so we could plug into, for example, an amazon. So if amazon, if we do open that door into amazon, we already have a product ready that can plug in their deliveries from Amazon UK or US to Nigeria via CargoBlog. So we had built all that but then still weren't so established in tech space. So joining a tech accelerator was the benefit was to at least increase our access to the network of tech stars and help us with investor readiness. So we know that we want to raise money. But then how do we best position for 2020?
Speaker 2:This was 2024. For 2024, how best to approach VCs, how best to fine tune our pitch, how to gain confidence with pitching, whether you're pitching online or pitching physically, etc. And I think Techstars helps us with handholding through executing our ideas. Those are one of the some of the biggest takeaways from textas and this is that sides meeting the other founders doing amazing things around the world not just the big us, but around the world and they're partnering with other founders in the community and building a community around textas. Textas is global, so just being able to tap into it to the existing network it was great to have that opportunity and the validation or the credibility that comes with being a Techstars-backed company also helps you leverage with introducing yourself, introducing your business and getting to meet investors, getting to meet other customers and just having doors open for you that you wouldn't have been able to open on your own. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:So you talked about building your own tech platform. Talk us through how you were leveraging technology internally at Cargo Plug.
Speaker 2:I'll go back to how we started, with tech, without tech. So at the beginning we would have if someone wanted to use our UK address, for example, they would send us an email, and then we would send them back an email with the template saying this is how it works, these are our charges, et cetera. Now, before going ahead to get an address, you pay us a fee because we needed to know who was sending things. We didn't want to receive packages whose owners we didn't know, so we needed a system. So we had to receive a payment from you. So, so we had to receive a payment from you, so Kika would pay her 5K or whatever it was, and then we'll have your email address, your home address, et cetera, et cetera. Now, once we closed at 5 pm, this couldn't happen. Customers that wanted to shop would not be able to get our UK address, and we knew how much money we're leaving on the table, how many upset customers we would have or frustrated customers we would have. So we wanted a system that would allow us, that would automate the process, so that, even if it's 2 am and somebody wants to shop, they can log into somewhere, process their details immediately, get an address.
Speaker 2:Okay, now, during COVID, amma actually went and learned web development, so she built the website initial website, yeah, so she built one that automated the entire process. You would get to the platform, make your payment on the payment processor Automatically, the address pops up on your screen and it also gets delivered to your email. So that was like the basic start, and then the rest was pretty much manual. But at least that worked for us to help customers who needed to reach us out of office hours and had a shopping need. Now we decided to build on that, because we still were leaving money on the table and leaving problems unsolved. So we decided to start our own proper tech team. We always had issues with website developers. Either they leave us hanging halfway, or it wasn't up to par, or it just didn't do what it was supposed to do. So we decided let's build something in-house. So we owned the place our own proprietary technology.
Speaker 2:So we said let's build something in-house. So we owned the place, our own proprietary technology, so we said let's do this user dashboard. So let me be able to. I'll be able to log in, see all her shipments that she's got, see the different delivery addresses across the world, track her shipments. Just make life easy for our customers. That user journey, user experience, was key for us and still is key for us.
Speaker 2:So we built the shipping, the dashboards, but besides that, we figured that if we're delivering on behalf of 100 tickets and out of those 100 tickets, a lot of them are shopping from ASOS, the fast fashion, asos, fashion, nova, shein, amazon, et cetera why don't we then build something for the sheen right, so that we can deliver to sheen's millions of customers, rather than just 100 chickens who need to shop from asos, for example? So that was where we built our shipping apis, where we can plug into a platform, even if it's a any kind of website, but we design it for leading platforms, so like ecommerce or Shopify, so we would have a plugin that allows them to plug our services to their platforms, such that if a seller in Wisconsin, the US, has a wig coming to Nigeria and the client chooses Nigeria automatically, it's consumed by our APIs and it comes in via cargo plug.
Speaker 2:So we also built that. That's still our proprietary technology and that was that's how we managed to automate the front end and the back end. So customers now get tracking information. When your package gets to the office in the UK, for instance, you get a notification saying your package has arrived. You waste 10 kg. This is the cost. You can even now take up insurance. So you take up insurance, sign up for insurance, have your goods covered from the UK all the way to your doorstep in Nigeria. It's helped our customers significantly. They've seen a huge impact. Now the customers don't even need to speak to us. They just go on the platform, see everything they need and receive their shipment seamlessly. It's radically transformed how we run the business and how we've been able to solve customers' problems, whether you're a B2C or B2B customer.
Speaker 1:That is fantastic, and you guys build this all in-house.
Speaker 2:Yes, all in-house.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is incredible, kike. What does your footprint look like today? What does CargoPlug's footprint look like today?
Speaker 2:Okay, so Cargo Plug is basically operating from literally think of any country. We have a network in that country that can bring the goods into Nigeria. Just recently opened our first self-run hub, actually in the UK. So I just returned from the UK setting up our first hub. And we've always had partners in the UK, but this time we're doing it on our own, we're putting our big big girl pants on and running operations directly by ourselves. So, yeah, so the UK, I guess we've put our. At least we have a cargo plug flag in quotes, now positioned in the UK in addition to Nigeria, but of course, around the world.
Speaker 2:As I said, we have networks of partners, amazing, reliable partners who basically make us look good. So if you have a shipment in Holland or wherever, we'll be able to bring it to Nigeria. Now, as regards export, same thing we can also deliver from Nigeria to any country in the world. While it's not our core, it's not our focus, it's still a service that exists and runs very well. In addition to that, we have mover services. So if people are relocating from one city to the other within Nigeria, we can help them, or relocating from here to Canada and so on. So, yeah, we're pretty much covering everywhere and looking to do way more, cross-africa in particular.
Speaker 1:So you've been building this business for a while 13 years now and your team has grown tremendously. What are your thoughts around company culture? It's interesting to hear that you've had the same account consultant for the last 13 years. How have you and Ama been intentional about building a company culture at Cargo?
Speaker 2:Plug. Yes, interestingly, you ask that because we didn't have a company culture. We're not intentional about it for the first five years. Okay, now when we turned five, we got a consultant another consultant like a brand consultant, right and one of the things he made us realize is that you have to have every family has its DNA. Either, even if you can claim to be a family member, you can be of the same surname, but if we do the DNA test and you're not a member of the family, you're not a member of the family. So that was where we instilled core values. So we made it easy for everyone to understand rice. Four values, so we made it easy for everyone to understand rice.
Speaker 2:Everybody knows rice, but in our context it's reliable, intelligent or innovative, customer focused and exciting. Those are the four things which make us who we are. So back then, when we had dispatch riders, we would say but even now for our drivers, if you are one hour away, don't call a client and say I'm 10 minutes away or I'm just on body loan, I'm almost there. No, make, be a person of your word and we make them believe that it's not just for work. Even outside, like in your own personal lives. Be a person, try and be. Just be reliable. Right then innovative. Think on your feet. How best can we solve the customer's problems? As a brand, we're always thinking of how to make it better, how to fine-tune it. We try and use the service ourselves like experience it the way the customer would just see how best we can innovate. And we've changed so much over the years and of course there's still more change to come. And then being intelligent, of course, is don't just think within a box. A customer calls you and asks for something that isn't black and white. Think in the gray, think in other colors and try and just solve the customer's problem efficiently. And then, being customer focused, the customer literally is at the center of everything we do. I think like a customer. I think about how I was before starting Janskidi. This was before we even started this business at all. What were my problems, what were my pain points and how would I have wanted them to be addressed? Those help us form and, of course, listen to our customers now. So, even if we've gone, we're so far removed from being Kike and Amal back then. That always looked for traveling, friends and family. But what are the problems that our current customers are still facing now. And? But what are the problems that our current customers are still facing now and how can we solve them? How do customers cope with everything that we're doing? And then exciting.
Speaker 2:You know what it's like wanting to receive anything from the UK or from anywhere. You're excited. You don't want to have to go through stress and hell and high water just to get your pair of shoes or you want to get things for your company. So if you're bringing in your stock, your customers are waiting. You're looking to make money. Your company, your business, has its needs. You have to be excited to receive our delivery and you just make sure that, okay, when you pick up the phone, have a smile on your face so that at least on the other end you know they're talking to a pleasant person, not like you're doom and gloom and bringing this color to somebody else's life.
Speaker 2:So just having being intentional about our core values and making sure that everybody, at every level of the company, even if you're a cleaner in the office, you should know how to at least welcome customers into the office, and I think that has helped us.
Speaker 2:And, as you said, the finance consultant has been with us for all these years. But even our driver. We have a driver who has celebrated his ninth year anniversary with us and I think another member of the team the head of our imports team joined us in 2015 and 2016 and he's the level of growth it's just been a joy to watch. And we know that he will know he probably won't be in cargo plugs forever, but wherever he goes he will definitely be a shining star because he's grown so much. He's transformed into a bright young man from the person that came into our office. So I think that culture of investing in people, training them, letting, being transparent about our processes, helping them see that you can start something, no matter how small, and make sure your processes are in place to bring it to something in a few years time, something that you can at least leave for your, for the next generation so I think that, yeah, and back to the rice core values it helps us even when hiring.
Speaker 2:So when we're hiring, we're not just looking for someone that can do the job. No, did you show up on time to the interview? If you were running late, did you let us know you were running late? We throw questions to the candidates based on our core values, to see if they're actually culture fits, not just a skill, not just a skills and skills fits, not just skill fit, but also culture fits, to see if they're actually culture fits, not just a skill, not just a skills and skills fits, not just skill fit, but also culture fits, to see how they'll fit into the organization. So, yeah, those are the things we do about being intentional about company culture.
Speaker 1:I'm really impressed with your core values. Rice, I like that. I like that a lot. I wonder what the next five years looks like for Cargo Plug. What do you think the next five years looks like it?
Speaker 2:just looks like being more established as Cargo Plug, ranging our service to more businesses, doing things at a greater scale, opening up more hubs, solving the problem at a larger scale, moving with the times, with technology at our forefront, the customers at our forefront, and just being a. Our vision is to be the preferred indigenous tech-enabled delivery company and just going, moving closer and closer towards achieving that within the next two, three and five years, and just being excited about the future, having raised money or not raised money, boosting revenues and keeping our investors, our team and our customers and ourselves, because sometimes you forget yourself as a founder but you also have to be happy being able to do the job, being happy keeping our homes intact and just being generally, I think, fulfilled as founders, as people and even as customers, because, of course, we're customers of Cargo Plugs. So, yeah, that's what I see us doing in the next five years.
Speaker 1:That's great. So I normally end my interviews by asking my guests to do two things One is to reflect, another is to give advice. So, from the reflection point of view you talked earlier about how we don't give ourselves our flowers enough, that we need to acknowledge the things that we've done. I'm just giving you an opportunity now to just look back at your journey from law school to now leading a tech-driven logistics company. What would you say is one of your proudest moments or proudest achievements so far?
Speaker 2:Reaching that 10-year milestone was huge, because you have no idea, we had no idea that we were going to get 10. And I think it wasn't until we're in the room doing the rebrand and everything was like, wow, we did it, jo. But yeah, regardless of the challenges, see, forex hasn't been on our side, it hasn't been on the side of anybody, but through the different dispensations we've had, the different leaders, the different challenges, the difference, see, it's been a very, it hasn't been a smooth, it hasn't been smooth sailing, and I guess that's the same thing for any business that's operating, particularly in Nigeria. But being able to pull through and still be standing after 10 years, we're not where we want to be, or we were not even where we wanted to be at 10. But the fact that we made it, yeah, I think that's one of the biggest achievements that we, one of the things I'm most proud of, and even not just that we made it as a company, but we made it as partners. Yeah, I'm still with ama hand holding, hand in hand on unveiling cargo plug. So, yeah, being able to do that with ama by my side and me also still by her side 10 years later, was a moment of pride for us.
Speaker 2:Then, secondly, our CNN feature. So we'd always seen a number of our customers would be on CNN. We're just admiring and being genuinely happy for these people. And then we got the email from CNN that we want you to be featured. What Just being recognized by that global channel was just well, cnn's Inside Africa, yeah, behind the tech boom in West Africa. So that was just another proud moment for us.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that was great. It was great to watch Congratulations. We were all so proud of you both. So, kike, if you could give one piece of advice to other women who are building businesses in Africa, what would that be?
Speaker 2:Start where you are. I think we said that already. Start where you are. And in saying that, I'm still speaking to myself and I'm speaking as someone who just launched a UK hub, so it's new for us. So just start, just go and then figure it out as you go along.
Speaker 2:Then secondly would be to start with the proper structure. Yeah, have structure in your business From having letters of employment. Let them know what they're doing, what's their job description, what's the penalty for ex-behavior, is it pre-agreed? Just have structure. Basically, that's the summary. So, regulation compliance if there's a license, you need to have. Even if you're selling soaps at home, you need to have license. Get your nafda license. Start properly so that you can build, even though we're saying, start where you are. At the point where you're still mixing the cream without the license, that's where you're still selling to your friends and family. But by the time you start launching your business onto social media or a website, start properly, brand properly, market properly, open your mouth and talk about your business. So those are the few things I think I'll leave me your business thank you so much.
Speaker 1:So how can our listeners learn more about the services that Cargo Plug offers?
Speaker 2:They can learn more. Go on our website, wwwgetcargoplugcom, or visit our social media platforms if that's more within reach. Jan Tugidi, unfortunately we were verified as Jan T Segidi before we changed our name and now we're having a difficulty changing our handle to Cargo Plug. So it's still Jan Segidi, j-a-n-d, the digits two G-I-D-I, but we have a second page at Get Cargo Plug, so that's on Instagram. We're also on LinkedIn and, yeah, on Facebook as well. So everywhere, get Cargo Plug.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much, kike. This has been great. Thank you, inka. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for listening. If you're not already subscribed, please do so on Apple, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and don't forget to leave us a review so we know how we're doing. I'm Akego Okoye and you have been listening to African Business Stories.