Nairobi — Automobile and logistics firm Bwala Africa has secured Sh10 million financing from Stanbic Bank to venture into last mile logistics.
Bwala Africa Group, a last mile logistics marketplace launched early this year to solve challenges facing fleet owners on a daily basis has recorded over 6000 deliveries in Nairobi and secured debt financing from South African-based bank CFC Stanbic to meet the rising demand for last mile fleet connectivity.
With the Sh10 million debt financing, Bwala Africa is rolling out 8 new trucks from ISUZU East Africa, four directly funded by CFC and the other 4 funded internally by Bwala, bringing the cost of total investment to Sh24,000,000.
The terms of the debt financing were however not disclosed but founder and CEO Kennedy Nyabwala says they have partnered with Jumia Kenya, Copia and Naivas supermarket to deliver goods sold online.
Last year, Naivas Supermarket invested Sh180 million in an e-commerce platform seeking to reach tech survey shoppers while Uchumi supermarket is already working on its own platform.
Fashion retailer Deacons East Africa also announced plans to invest Sh10 million for an E-commerce platform that is part of a strategy to boost sales
In 2017, Jumia handled more than 8 million packages through the Jumia logistics platform.
"Walk-in customers will significantly reduce as more customers will prefer to buying online. Convenience, affordability, accessibility, and confidentiality will be the key drivers and we hope to play fill the convenience gap," said Nyabwala.
He said that delivery time for every online store will reduce to conform to consumer needs.
"We are equipping ourselves to have the fastest deliveries in Kenya. Reduction in delivery time opens doors to more online shopping in the future," he added.
Bwala is also piloting their escrow system dubbed BwalaPay, a technology that allows vendors to have cash collected on their behalf if a customer buying online is not comfortable paying upfront."We have so far collected over Sh7 Million for our various last mile customers. BwalaPay allows customers to pay on delivery and the seller on the other will either get cash when the item is sold or return of the package, if not sold. This has solved a big pain on online fraud, and hence this gives us the confidence of sorting out safety issues of online transactions"BwalaPay service will be extended to classifieds and other online business entities who are dealing with skeptical customers who are not sure if they will lose money through […]