Africa Goodnest is a Ghanaian firm that provides access to domestic and international markets, promotes smallholder agricultural enterprises, and distributes agricultural products with added value.
Africa Goodnest, a company Bernice Yalley founded in 2021, is developing a safe, user-friendly e-commerce platform that links international customers with African businesses supplying smallholder agricultural products in personal care, food and beverages, and herbs and spices.
According to Yalley, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of African entrepreneurs producing high-quality, export-ready, natural consumable goods in recent years.
“However, it is still more common for Africa to export raw materials that are then combined with products from other countries, packaged, and marketed all over the world, even back to Africans. Here, we may add value.
Africa Goodnest created to promote businesses that make finished, value-added commodities, which in turn helps smallholder farmers, lessens Africa’s dependency on the export of raw materials, and supports the continent’s burgeoning industries.
According to Yalley, there has recently been a discernible rise in the number of African business owners creating premium, export-ready, natural consumable goods.
“However, raw materials from Africa are still more frequently blended with goods from other nations, packaged, and sold all over the world, even back to Africans. We could be of use here.
Africa Goodnest was established to support companies that produce finished, value-added goods, thereby assisting smallholder farmers, reducing Africa’s reliance on the export of raw materials, and fostering the growth of its industries.
Since we re-launched in 2021 as a wholesale platform, it has been much simpler to deal with suppliers because we don’t need to store their inventory, and with buyers too because they can order things in bulk and we help them arrange their shipping and logistics. As a result, we are managing growth on both the supply and demand sides.
The Tony Elumelu Foundation provided the first round of funding for Africa Goodnest, which according to Yalley was a significant turning point for the startup company.
“Simply because it provided me some validation and confidence, I was quite ecstatic about that. You need that morale boost from time to time when you’re an entrepreneur who questions whether you should just get a job like a normal adult every few months, she said.
The UNICEF Startup Lab provided a little additional money after that, and now we are a part of the MEST Express Accelerator funded by the Mastercard Foundation.
For the time being, Africa Goodnest, which earns a profit from the products it sells and also bills its sellers a monthly charge for hosting and marketing their goods, is primarily concentrated on its domestic market.
“Despite the fact that firms from other African nations have joined our platform, we want to primarily concentrate on growth in Ghana. With targeted buyers in North America and some in Europe, we intend to concentrate on growth in West Africa, most likely Anglophone,” Yalley said.
She claimed that aside from its website crashing the day it began, Africa Goodnest has merely had the typical difficulties that other companies encounter.
“It’s challenging for any new brand to enter the market with novel, largely unheard-of products and little resources. But that’s just a surface issue; it’s not the money that’s a problem. The logistics planning has actually been the most difficult aspect, she remarked.
“We are a modest brand attempting to digitise a logistical process for small agribusinesses in a small nation on a neglected continent. Since everything has been manual up to this point, we want things to go smoothly and efficiently. It has been challenging to build it and locate those who comprehend it.
But Africa Goodnest persists, and it would take a courageous person to bet against it given that it has the support of people like Tony Elumelu, UNICEF, and MEST.
Source: disrupt-africa.com
