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Afrifresh
Afrifresh a supply chain management system using machine learning and AI to make ordering of groceries from your favourite store seamless. It is an on-demand grocery delivery platform facilitating doorstep deliveries of groceries, home essentials, pharmaceutical and farm produce in major towns of Zambia that will help reduce human contact during COVID-19. Our aim is to reduce human contact in order to curb the spread of the pandemic, to economically empower taxi drivers in the transport sector who may be out of business due to limited movement of people. We will equally help farmers find a market to sell their farm produce. To protect our delivery agents, we will make sure that each driver has a face mask, hand sanitizer and gloves. All payments will be made online with the option for mobile money and call in service for those without access to internet. Afrifresh allows people to stay at home and have all their groceries delivered to them. It is an e-commerce platform whose transactions between customers and traders can positively contribute to creating a stable economy.
Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.
- Enable the elderly, women, children and disabled have easy access to ordering their groceries, pharmaceutical and healthy farm produce needs.
- Empower farmers to be able to sell their products online and delivered to their target customers without being exposed or spreading the coronavirus
- Grocery workers will not be exposed to COVID-19 due to limited in-store customers
- Logistics companies, freelance drivers and taxi drivers will continue operating during the crisis as our delivery agents
- Flattening and subsequent plunging of the curve of the COVID-19 cases.
- The convenience of purchase of produce, pharmaceutical and grocery needs from the comfort of their home.
- Quality assurance of produce delivered
- Reduction in human contact and curb spread and local transmission of the pandemic
- Enhanced prosperity of smallholder farmers through an increase in selling price
What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
The problems we are tackling are: -
- The difficulty of people, especially elderly and disabled people to access healthy food and groceries during this crisis in a timely manner
- Overcrowding and congestion in supermarkets that are operational
- Some local stores closing and workers getting laid off due to reduced sales
- Taxi drivers out of business due to fewer movements of people
- Farmers incurring losses as their produce perishes due to low demand as sales plummet during COVID-19 crisis
Our solution is creating an online platform (website and mobile application) where users can order groceries in the comfort of their home during the crisis from their favourite local store and have them delivered to their doorstep within a reasonable time.
What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?
Creating a web platform (website and mobile application) where users can order groceries in the comfort of their home during the crisis from their favourite store and have them delivered to their doorstep within 2-hours. We will create a unique distribution model that aggregates taxis and stores nearby for fast delivery. Geofencing technology will be enabled on the system to only allow customers to order within their neighbourhood for fast delivery. Those without smartphone or access to the internet will be able to order by calling. Our target market will mainly be those in urban areas as it is the most affected areas from COVID-19. Payments will be made online through mobile money, VISA, Mastercard, e-wallet.
Share your story (your narrative)
Can you imagine the pain of a father who is a taxi driver in Nairobi Kenya with 5 children and an expecting mother failing to feed them because he has run out of business? Or a small scale farmer in Lagos Nigeria struggling to have his farm produce sold in the midst of this crisis? Grocery stores shutting down, 20 million jobs lost, economies crashing, 60 million elderly and 80 million disabled across Africa failing to have access to healthy food and groceries due to fear of getting exposed to COVID 19 in overcrowded grocery stores as people are rushing to buy all their grocery needs. Increase in price of some basic food products rising between 20 and 33 per cent in Ghana. 200,000 minibus taxis in South Africa out of business. But worry no more my beloved African people, we at Afrifresh are here to ease the pain, order directly online from your favourite grocery store and get all your grocery needs and farm produce directly at your doorstep within 2 hours by a click of a button. Have internet problems? Don’t worry Call us we will deliver to you. Now that taxi driver or the unemployed can get back to business by delivering for you, the female farmer can have her healthy fresh farm produce reach the elderly, disabled and yourself while you and your beautiful families stay Home and Safe.
Afrifresh Delivering fresh! Saving lives.
Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.
The outcome we expect:-
- Increased transactions on the platform showing will be a measure of increased trading and access to goods
- Number of signed up drivers, stores, farmers and other traders will be a success measurement for the platform
- From our profits, 20% will be set aside to subsidise for the less fortunate in society and in need like the elderly, disabled, women and children (food subsidies, protective facemasks, education support needs, and support of young entrepreneurs).
- We will create more direct jobs to join our team and create opportunities for other businesses as well. We are also expected to empower over taxi drivers and farmers across many affected towns.
- Purchasing of groceries, pharmaceutical, farm produce and other home essentials will be made easy even post COVID-19. Productivity and revenue will also increase in grocery stores
- We intend to scale up to other sub-Sahara neighbouring countries so that in case of an epidemic like this arises we have all the infrastructure and solutions to help combat and contain any virus.
- Please note that we are still at an idea stage and are not yet operational
Pitch Video https://youtu.be/V_PF1L7dQ5A
Your Final Proposal for challenge
yes
So with your platform a user can’t order for a vital product from a stor that is far from the location?
I feel users won’t appeal to this.
Dear Muyunda Kaonga,
Thanks for sharing the overview of your idea with us.
Overall, it seems fine to me. But, I would like to just highlight on an important aspect: how would this service be feasible to the store owners? So far, your answers and story mainly cover the perspectives of customers and transporters. But what about the suppliers? Will your app require them to have additional tech/financial-resources to be able to fully operationalize this service? Think about the overall processes involved- there may be an avenue of opportunity.
Users tagged:
This is a great ideas it will make life more easier..
Users tagged:
Hi. Interesting approach taken from the Uk or elsewhere. I presume the business model takes into account that a lot of the population do not have the type of internet access we do to be online. But i do think it can work, adapted to the local realities. Best of luck
The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.
Its a great idwa but how is it difgeent feom alrwady existing delivery services ? Whats your edge against other to take on more market share ?
Status labels added: Community feedback received, Expert feedback received
Status label removed: Expert feedback received
Hi Muyunda, You are offering a much needed service in this situation of Covid-19. Have you launched your web-based platform yet? How many customers have you served so far? What is your revenue stream?
Hello, what is your business model? How will you make money? Is it cost efficient as taxi is probably quite expensive for a simple goods delivery? Best, Mojca
Hey Muyunda,
Great idea and much needed in these times. I really liked the fact that you are connecting a lot of stakeholders: farmers, stores, taxi drivers and basically creating an ecosystem inside your application.
A few points from my side that you might consider:
- Connecting the consumers with the stores is an awesome initiative that we have seen implemented in other countries with a lot of success - you can look up Uber or Bolt giving this type of service. The context is a little different because they already have the drivers and the infrastructure in place but I think it can be of a good inspiration. I was wondering if there isn't anyone there offering the same service. Is there anyway you differentiate yourselves from them? Are there any ride-hailing services that might switch to offer this service?
- Connecting the farmers with consumers I think is a different problem that you address and I was wondering how it would look from an operational standpoint and what type of complexities would it bring on top of connecting consumers to the stores. How does the promise of value look like with fulfillment in 2 hours? Is it feasible? How would it look from a safety/hygiene perspective (with the pandemic)? Can you assure the quality of the products (that they are in a good shape) and delivery?
- If people can also order on the phone, how would this look like from an operational perspective? You will have a call center go with each client through your offerings and prices? How much would they spend on a call? Is it profitable? How will you deal with clients unsatisfied with the bill or miscommunications between the operator and the client regarding pricing?
- How will you target people that don't have internet access?
- Is there any platform like this similar in the world?
- How popular are payments with the mobile for elderly people or people that don't have internet access?
- Have you thought about launching in a specific country in order to understand the ecosystem that this platform creates and the logistics behind it? By focusing on so many problems with so many stakeholders the economics can turn very complex.
Awesome job with the idea, especially in this context. And I like the fact that it can easily scale once you nail the solution, with the market adaptation and specifics required.
Status label added: Expert feedback received
Status label added: Mentor feedback received
Hi Muyundu
My advice Start small and build momentum, Being a social entrepreneur can be very difficult, you are constantly in a field dominated by changing dynamics, you will often face business challenges, and you have to start small and build your enterprise from the ground up. You must be resilient, realistic, and passionate about your goals and the impact you are trying to achieve.
To add to your solution, I am sharing with you questions from one of our trainings that can help in refining our ideas and projects
What business model will you follow to implement this idea?
What methodology or strategy will you use during different processes of implementing this idea?
Which are the processes you have to go through until the finalization of the idea?
What means or tools do you need to implement my idea?
Which are your potential collaborators, investors?
Thank you
Dear Muyunda
I have read your proposal and believe it’s a great concept and idea, something we are seeing in North America more and more. I might offer some suggestions in regard to your proposal
I think it may be valuable to highlight the role and participation of store owners and how this will benefit them
I think it may be valuable to expand how the system works from all three demographics of the supply chain and clearly show how they engage, participate and what is it in for each of them. It may be helpful to dive into that detail our of gate
It may be useful to articulate some of the market size potential for this app including revenue potential
Mike
Status label added: Submission completed
Status label added: Idea under jury review
The idea has been progressed to the next milestone.