Women partner through Jand2Gidi to curb goods delivery challenges

Two Nigerian women, Mrs. Ujama Akpata and Mrs. Kikelomo Fola-Ogunniya, have partnered in logistics business, Jand2Gidi, to reduce the frustrations that customers go through in the local and international goods and services delivery across the country.

The partners brought in digitised processes in order to remain competitive and relevant in meeting their customers’ needs and satisfaction everywhere they are.

Fola-Ogunniya, who is a lawyer, said the brand was ready to integrate into vendor’s websites through Application Programming Interface (API), which would allow it to effectively interpret and capture customer’s data.

According to her, when the company first launched, it had very manual processes and there was a limit to the number of customers they could accommodate, saying that now, the firm is fully automated from their accounting services to through others.

He noted that it has enabled the brand to scale from where they were to accommodate more businesses, corporates and individuals, saying that the company has continued to stay true to its unique selling point, which is to bring excitement to logistics.

On the challenges of the business, Akpata said, “Like every business, we have faced a number of challenges including customs issues, regulatory issues, policies that keep springing up on a daily basis. Also, we were in a male dominated industry.

“When we started in 2013, there weren’t a lot of females doing this business. So, we faced a lot of resistance when we started but the company has recorded some major wins amid the challenges.”

Within a year of running the business, which started as a side hustle, while still actively working in the oil and gas industry, they were able to pay for their first office space in Lekki Phase 1 and since then, they have steadily grown in leaps and bounds; going from a small two main office to expansion to the mainland, and shipping to different countries in the world.

“Over the last nine years, Jand2Gidi, has not only faced challenges but also numerous wins. We have bagged several awards and recognition such as winning the WIMBIZ/EbonyLife Sisterhood Awards for ‘Best Collaboration of the Year’ 2016; was selected as a beneficiary of the 2017 Pilot Phase of the LSETF loan scheme for small businesses and was identified by Business Day as one of the ‘Top Fastest Rising SMEs’ in 2019,” Apata said.

She also emphasised the need for insurance in every business. “We always encourage all our customers to take on insurance. It is something that we partner with insurance companies about, from shipping items from the UK, US, Canada – we have marine insurance. Even locally all our goods that are in transit and for our staff members who are working both in house and on the roads as well.”

She added that Jand2Gidi aims to expand its services to countries such as Ghana and Kenya as well as open more hubs in Lagos, Nigeria and Europe.