Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: On the road to faster freight transport: Kobo360’s Uber for trucks

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At the launch of the Next African Start-Ups programme in Egypt, Obi Ozor,
founder and CEO of Kobo360, talked about his passion for problem solving –
and how his new startup is delivering faster trucking services and creating
jobs.


Where does your entrepreneurial spirit come from?


I’ve always been an entrepreneur. I’m just born to do this. When I was 13,
I was in a boarding school in southeastern Nigeria and I used my pocket
money to buy a Nokia cell phone. My classmates who didn’t have phones would
pay to use it to call their parents. That was my first business.

I honestly think some people are just very entrepreneurial. For me, when I
see a problem I think, ‘Ok, this is not how it should be.’ I see myself as
the person with the obligation to solve that problem. The joy of solving the
problem further fuels your drive, so you become bolder and bolder. The
things you achieve encourage you and you start to believe. Believing is the
most important thing for an entrepreneur. You must believe, even when no one
else does.


Tell us about the “aha!” moment that led you to start your business.


Kobo360 is an e-logistics platform, basically Uber for trucks across
Nairobi and, soon, pan-Africa. The idea came in 2014 when I was still in the
United States and we were shipping goods to Nigeria. It would take one week
to move goods 1,000km in Nigeria. We saw massive inefficiencies, so we
started looking into it and in 2018 we started an app that connects drivers
to cargo owners. Today, that journey takes just about three days.

We have about 7,000 trucks on the platform now, all of them are independent
contractors. We’ve moved close to 200 million metric tonnes in the 11 months
of Kobo so far. We’re working with Nestle, Honeywell, DHL, and Coca-Cola.
Our target is to have over 200,000 trucks by the next 36 months, which means
we will have supported about 400,000 jobs on the platform.


What’s your number one tip for new entrepreneurs?


We don’t have all the resources that Silicon Valley has. There’s a lack of
infrastructure, there’s not a lot of venture capital activities going on, so
you just have to put your head down and execute. That’s the key thing.


How can governments support the development of an entrepreneurial culture
in Africa?


It’s a partnership between the governments and the entrepreneurs across the
continent. Entrepreneurs bring ideas. Governments can support us by doing
their own part, which is infrastructure and policies.

—Howwemadeitinafrica 



Obi Ozor, founder and CEO, Kobo360. Photo: Dominic Chavez/IFC

 

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