The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 549 (July 14 - 27 2021)

Page10 TheTrumpet JULY 14 - 27 2021
Food & Drink
How the internet is changing the
life of a Ghanaian beans seller
By Bennet Otoo
August 21 1995, will forever go
down as a special date in the
history of Ghana. This is the day
the first line went into operation, making
Ghana the first country in West Africa to
have a permanent Internet connection.
The internet, previously a special
reserve for a few I.T inclined people,
rich folk and people who have lived
abroad has now become a powerful tool
in world development. The
transformation of this amazing
phenomenon from a basic medium of
messaging and communication into a
very important tool has changed the
lives of many in Ghana. Today, after
over 26 years of its existence, we can
confidently say that the internet has
opened many doors that have impacted
our country and the world at large.
One important industry that has been
born through the internet is e-
commerce. The ability to buy and sell
our physical goods and services in a
convenient, safe and fast manner is
sometimes overwhelming to
comprehend. Over the past few years, e-
commerce has made it possible for small
businesses to have access to millions of
customers and improve their sales.
One exciting yet very touching
example is that of a table top beans
seller in Accra Ghana who has been able
to grow her business into a popular fast
selling and highly profitable local
restaurant in just under 2 years.
Once upon a time in 2019, Madam
Evangeli who sells beans with ‘gari’ and
fried plantain also known in local
parlance as “red-red”, “gobɛ“ or “yo kɛ
gari” on a table top in Accra, hadn’t
even heard of selling food on the
internet. She started her business selling
to only physical walk-in customers. She
started it all by herself and later
employed one more worker to support
her as she used to cook the food and dish
it out alone prior to that. Her beans joint
called “OJ’s Kitchen” was known by
only a few people in and around East
Legon, American House where her
tabletop business was located. “Gobɛ,”
being a favorite of many low to middle
income people and a few high-income
earners usually does well provided the
food is tasty and accepted by all.
A few months after she started the
business, she got introduced to an online
food delivery platform. At the time, she
only knew that platform was into online
shopping. One of her first customers
was an employee of Jumia and he
mentioned to her that the company had
an online food delivery platform as well
BEANS-STEW-FRIED-PLANTAIN
that supported local restaurants to boost
sales, reach more customers and grow
their businesses. She was sceptical about
it because she didn’t fully understand
how the entire process worked and what
the actual benefits were. After a few
days of explaining and convincing, she
decided to list as a vendor and test the
platform. According to Madam
Evangeli, just when she listed on the
Jumia Food portal, the country was
forced into lockdown in March 2020.
Her customer base began to reduce
drastically since there were restrictions
on movement and there were practically
no customers around to buy from her.
This became a problem since the
business was her primary source of
income and livelihood. She recounts
having to sometimes come to work to
prepare the meal only for a handful of
people to purchase. It was having
serious implications on her business and
personal life.
She then remembered that she had
listed on Jumia so the love story began.
She started using the platform
frequently and contacted Jumia Food to
see how best she can increase sales and
grow the business amidst the Covid-19
lockdown and restrictions. A week later,
the number of orders had tripled and
things began to normalize. This
continued for months as many of her
customers now had a way to stay in the
comfort of their homes or offices and
still get their meals delivered to them
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safely. Sales started increasing rapidly
and demand was beginning to get
overwhelming. She then had to employ
a few more workers to assist her while
also expanding her kitchen and stall
area. By December, more employees
were brought in as the demand kept
increasing and at a point, she couldn’t
handle it anymore. Sometimes, she has
to temporarily close her shop on Jumia
Food in order to serve some offline
customers too. She is enjoying her time
on the platform and hasn’t regretted
listing as a vendor on Jumia Food.
She mentioned that people now
know her from far and wide. She gets
calls for group orders, she caters for
events and even sometimes some
celebrities visit her local restaurant. She
has expanded and added other meals
such as boiled rice to her menu and
intends to add other local dishes soon.
She has been able to take care of all her
OJ's
domestic needs and has plans of starting
other projects as well. Madam Evangeli
also has plans of opening more branches
in other parts of the city in order to also
support young unemployed people by
offering them job opportunities.
Her life has been transformed
through the internet and she is grateful
to God and Jumia for this.
There are many more small-scale
food vendors like Madam Evangeli who
are benefitting from ecommerce and the
power of the internet. Ecommerce is the
future and it is important that every
stakeholder play their part in ensuring
that more lives are touched through the
internet.
* Bennet Otoo is the PR &
Communications Manager of Jumia
Ghana.