Meet Chooya, the Aba-based startup that is redefining the African local market experience.
The African local markets face lots of lapses from limited digital infrastructure and solutions, difficulty in accessing new and sustainable markets for local sellers, poor customer service experience for buyers, consistent price fluctuation, poor access to logistics support, insecurity over fake products, difficulty in accessing products, to unstructured data for future business decisions for all stakeholders.
Despite the lapses in African local markets and the wide spreading of American-style supermarkets/online retail platforms across Africa, 85% to 90% of all food eaten in Sub-Saharan Africa is still supplied by the local markets. According to the science report from VOA Learning English, it is estimated that by 2040, local markets will continue to supply up to 70% of the food Africans eat.
Chooya, a startup from RAD5 Tech Hub (a striving innovation technology hub in Southeast Nigeria) is building the future of the African local market, a new way to go the local markets.
According to Igwe Uguru the CEO of Chooya, “we’re solving these market frictions across local markets in an entirely new and innovative way leveraging technology. And with over 500 users currently on Chooya and reaching a $2,000 payment processing milestone for a few local market sellers in the last two months through our Minimal Viable Product (MVP), we will be releasing version 1.0 of the Chooya Market App on May 1st, 2021.”
The new Chooya Market App will help families, individuals, and businesses to:
1. Get real-time access to the current product prices across local markets.
2. Get access to local sellers’ contacts on request.
3. Shop by simply snapping or typing their market lists.
4. Source products in different local markets across cities.
5. Buy from any local market using a single app.
6. Schedule the date and time for their order to be delivered.
7. Review transactions after purchase to help other make decision while buying same products.
8. Keep track of market weekly, monthly, and annual spending.
9. Save cash monthly using a dedicated e-Wallet account and use that to buy from the local market anytime.
In the last few months, Chooya has helped over 100 local sellers go online in line with its mission to democratize global trade opportunities for all and bring e-commerce to the grassroots.
Mr. Amaechi a local market seller who deals in varieties of vegetables use for salad said he has been a local market seller in the popular Salad Market in Aba since 1994 (i.e 27 years ago). But on the 25th of March 2021, for the very first time since 1994, Mr. Amaechi moved his business online with the help of Chooya and made his first online sales the next days. In the last two weeks, Mr. Amaechi has made approximately $50USD through his Chooya online store.
Likewise, Mr. Chima a local bookseller in Aba who joined Chooya on Tuesday 30th March sold 12 copies of his books within 4 days.
According to Christy Kitchen, a catering company in Aba, “we’re excited about the service. We now go to the market using Chooya. As a catering company, we need fresh veggies for our service. And going to the local market has been stressful and time-consuming till we discovered Chooya. We get real-time market prices of products and excellent customer service. Items arrived bigger, fresher, and an hour before the scheduled time.”
Chooya is not just providing families, individuals, and businesses with the most convenient way to access local markets, but is changing lives and communities.
In 2020, Chooya was part of the Alibaba Get Global Challenge as the only startup from Nigeria, six in Africa, 53 across the globe building impactful digital solutions during and beyond COVID-19.
In February 2021, Chooya extended its service to Abakaliki through a strategic partnership with the Ebonyi State Government to support local market sellers across her local markets.
Join Chooya on the journey of redefining the local market experience and bringing hope to many who are excluded from global trade opportunities and e-commerce.
Download the current version of the Chooya Mobile App on Google Playstore here: http://bit.ly/ChooyaApp or visit https://chooya.ng for iPhone users.
Chooya will be listing more local markets on the app by May 1st as they seek to scale and extend their service across Southeast Nigeria. For partnership, kindly write to Chooya at partnership@chooyagroup.com or learn more about their service at https://chooyagroup.com
