Developing Africa’s Super App

Super apps – platforms that offer various services under one umbrella – are proliferating across various emerging markets, including Africa. Emeka Ajene is co-founder of the Togo-based Gozem, which began life as a ride-hailing service but is now building out a super app by adding services including food delivery. He says companies like Gojek and Grab have served as an inspiration to his company. “As we launched diverse ride-hailing services, from motorcycle taxis to tuk-tuks to standard car taxis, we noticed some users leveraging Gozem beyond its intended use as a personal transport service in order to make different types of commercial and personal deliveries, so we built out these functionalities in the app to better serve these use cases,” said Ajene. Today, with the Gozem app, customers can order a ride, arrange the delivery of merchandise and goods via Gozem’s cargo offering, and order groceries, electronics, and other e-commerce items from partner supermarkets and vendors. In August, it transitioned into a new super-app interface in order to make it easier for our customers to use the various services. Gozem is not the only African company taking this approach, one that has been tried and tested globally. Algeria’s temtem also started by getting adoption in the transport vertical, and it is now turning on more icons over time. Founder Kamel Haddar said the company’s pre-existing plans to become a super app had been accelerated by COVID-19.

SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA