ARTICLE by
KEVIN Namunwa
Embedding Fintech And E-Commerce Through Francophone Africa In our November 2022 issue, we highlighted the 45 Most Influential Women In Digital Transformation, Africa. Among the iron women that have contributed greatly to the growth of technology in the continent, was Sophia Alj, Co-Founder and COO of Chari (pronounced shee-rii). Born and raised in Morocco, Alj has always been drawn to entrepreneurship. Her dream has always been to create solutions that would benefit the community and improve the lives of its members. She got a shot at achieving this dream when she cofounded Chari with her husband, Ismael Belkhayat. The start-up was set up to help corner shops (your everyday kiosk just a stone’s throw away from your doorstep) in North Africa have a go at getting on the digital transformation bandwagon. Sophia believes the Mom and Pop Shops also need to benefit from technology and have a seamless working experience. Who is Sophia Alj? I was born and raised in Morocco, grew up in Casablanca but travelled to study at the McGill University in Montreal Canada. I studied Civil Engineering then did my master’s in Management at ESCP Europe, Paris. I tried to learn all the skills I needed to become an entrepreneur as I knew very early on I wanted to become one. Could you tell me more about Chari? It is a start-up I co-founded with my husband in January 2020 with our client base built over that year. Our client base is basically Mom and Pops. We provide them with a B2B e-commerce app allowing them to order goods which are delivered the next day while they also
benefit from various financial services like payment facilities and micro credits. We have operations in Morocco, Tunisia, and Côte d’Ivoire and we aim to be a leader in the B2B e-commerce embedded with fintech space in Francophone Africa. How was the experience of founding a start-up with your husband? Did having him as a partner make it easier for you? It is very hard to be a solo founder because there’s so much you need to do. I admire solo founders who have built their businesses from ground up alone. It is a very difficult fete to achieve. Ismael was already a tech entrepreneur with two successful projects. He had also built a web incubator that hosted several start-ups still growing. He has a lot of experience in the tech industry in Morocco, so of course, it made it simpler for me. How does your partnership work? We have clearly separated our tasks; he’s the CEO, and I’m the COO. Ismael is more in charge of things related to development, strategy, and fundraising, while I am in charge of the operations and the tech part of the business. We also have two separate offices where I’m close to operations which is where our warehouses are located - while he is at the city centre. We make it work by having clear responsibilities.
18 www.cioafrica.co | MARCH-APRIL 2023 | CIO Africa Magazine | by dx⁵
What is it that attracted you to technology? You can make your operations more efficient by adding the right technology to it. I am fascinated by process optimisation through disruptive technologies. When I was working at McKinsey & Company as a strategy consultant (before co-founding Chari), I worked on a digital transformation power and I really wanted to apply that in my start-up. With Chari, we have tried to digitise the whole value chain of the consumer goods industry by optimising the consumer experience from placing an order, following its preparation, all the way to the delivery of the order. What is the big hairy problem you are looking to solve with Chari? We want to help Mom & Pops fight competition coming from the modern trade. In emerging markets in Africa, these shops are part of our daily lives. We visit them every day to buy goods for our households. They know our families and are part of our communities. We decided to position Chari as a central purchasing body and a one-stop-shop for all these retailers. We want to push it further by allowing them to have access to financial services and while at it, work on their financial inclusion. In your opinion, what do you think is the scope of growth of e-commerce in
