African logistics startups are positioning themselves to play a key role in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA), the largest free-trade area in the world by the number of participating countries, which launched on Jan. 1.As businesses that tend to think about being in multiple markets from the onset, startups can help tackle some of the biggest goals of the agreement, such as common payment systems and common user experiences, says Onyekachi Izukanne, co-founder and CEO of TradeDepot, a Lagos-based startup that distributes consumer goods from manufacturers to retailers in three countries. “We are big supporters of this increased access to market that the agreement promotes, even if we recognize that there is still quite a bit of work to be done,” says Izukanne. “I look at the agreement as a promise of integration.”
SOURCE: QUARTZ AFRICA