Interview By Dimeji Akinloye
Meet Ex-Jumia Executives Redefining Logistics Business in Nigeria with Warenext
A
yo Olunuga was raised by a father who owned a logistics business in Nigeria. With his experience at the Royal Mail and Jumia, he had mastered the terrain and fully understood where the market gaps were. He was eager to solve the warehousing and last-mile delivery problems but he knew the journey is a marathon, and to win, he couldn’t go it alone. Ayo teamed up with his friend and former colleague, Damola Ajayi, a sales professional, to start Warenext, an end-to-end digital marketplace. According to the duo, the mission is to shoulder all the logistics burden of SMEs in Nigeria.
Warenext is helping online retailers warehouse their goods on a payas-you-go plan, with efficient and customer-centric last-mile delivery options to choose from on the platform.
36 | Business Elites Africa / ISSUE 116
Ayo and Damola told Business Elites Africa in detail about their journey as employees and now as business owners.
well. That was what we did for a while, then this modernization of the railway came about, and the railway actually stopped working for some time.
BEA: Firstly, let’s talk about your That literarily halted the rail side of professional journey before you the business, but we went on with started Warenext. the road. That’s what I did prior to us joining and starting off Warenext in Ayo: I have been in the logistics 2019. business for about 10 to 15 years. I grew up around a logistics business BEA: For someone coming from the owned by my father and that’s what logistics industry in the UK where I studied at the University as well. I the system works, how would you actually had my formal logistics job compare it to the Nigerian terrain? in the UK, with the Royal Mail. From Ayo: In a way, logistics is similar there I moved on to Aston Martin. everywhere, because it’s the same I worked with Jaguar Land Rover thing that you’re doing. It’s how and I also worked with Jumia. I was you do it that differs, and what the the head of delivery at Jumia. When rules and regulations allow in each I left Jumia, I tried my hands on a country. Then, the environment is small logistics business, where we also different - the people you work did road and rail transportation for with and the level of expectation or a number of businesses. We moved exposure that they have to the job are goods from Apapa all the way to the really what’s different. In the UK, it’s Kano-Kaduna axis and down south as very regularized, there are certain jobs
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