Aaron Fu, the managing partner at Nest, began the event with a warm introduction to all and played a great host throughout, encouraging the guests to focus on the fact that Kenya has a strong sense of entrepreneurship. One of the first topics discussed was cash or card in the Kenyan market, with panelist Mary Mwangi, the CEO of Data Integrated Limited, stating that we need “tools to keep good accounting.” The challenges for Kenyans using cash versus card especially was that budget wise it is easier to pay via cash in order to maintain personal budgets. Although making payments via your visa card is convenient, Kenyans do lack trust owing to fraud and concern that they may be charged extra. Francis Mugane, a director at Visa, gave the crowd a few insights into what Visa has up their sleeves for the coming year.
Zahid Mitha, the project manager at ROAM, heated up the panel discussion with constructive criticism challenging a number of the panelists’ assertions about the Kenyan retail market. Sam Chappatte, managing director at Jumia, firmly agreed that Kenya is leaps ahead with more people shopping regularly. Retail has been successful because Kenyans are more savvy and brand conscious, if you look around many Kenyans want to be consuming great brands.
Nakumatt operations director Mr. Ramamurthy Thiagarajan, one of the panelists, said Kenya is the “easiest country to do business,” and second in retail after South Africa mainly because of supply. Kenyans have the drive to push retail, and this is agreeable. He firmly states “he’s in the business of dealing with people” because they drive the economy. Mr.Thiagarajan used humour to address challenges in African retail and e-commerce. One of his memorable statements during the discussion was that, “there is nothing like competition, only competence.” He mentioned global retailers perceive Kenyans as smart, hardworking and long-term and this positively influences their willingness to engage with us in business.
A real take away from #WhatsNext is to deal with solutions that work for Africa. Stacey Ondimu, the managing director of Rupu, stated that Rupu deals with solutions in the African context and this has contributed to their success. From the panel discussion this writer has learned to expect more retail expansion in Kenya, we’re yet to see large global brands enter the Kenyan market. Also, we need to embrace e-commerce and adapt solutions at all levels across the board. There are plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs to excel in Kenya and globally.
Key parting statements from Duncan Muchangi, the managing director of Jumia Food, is that mobile will continue leading! In all, the #WhatsNext in Retail and E-commerce organised by Nest was a great success. It was engaging, fun, informative and this writer is already enthusiastic about the next event!
