NAIROBI, Kenya, Jul 11 — Little, Africa’s first super app platform has ventured into the logistics business with a vision of offering cutting edge services in an industry whose fortunes have been on the rise following e-commerce adoption.
Inspired by success of its mobility business, the company has integrated technology to offer reliable and convenient logistics package that reaches different parts of the country.
The company sees opportunity in consumer goods, hardware and construction materials, agricultural produce, vehicle spare parts and e-commerce among other areas to sustain the new venture. The plan is to later roll it out beyond Kenyan borders in territories such as Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania and Nigeria in the near future.
“We learned and mastered the art of corporate ride hailing and became a dominant player. Now it is time to learn again. Launching Little Logistics. City, Intercity and cross border,” said Little Chief Executive Officer, Kamal Budhabhatti.
According to Jacob Ochieng, Little’s Head of the Logistics Business, the new technology offers 360 degrees solution in the delivery space lowering cost of operations through remote management of drivers, fuel and also give live monitoring of the cargo.
He underscores the robust nature of the system noting that it goes beyond the integration of cab hailing architecture to allowing partners access deals little has with some of Kenya’s leading oil marketers.
Over the past few months, the price of fuel has gone up due to global factors driving up the cost of doing business.
The system allows owners of the on boarded delivery vehicles and motorbikes monitor fuel usage from point of refill incase the vehicles are fueled at partner stations. Some of Little’s fuel partner stations include Ola and Delta among others.
“But our strategy also takes care of the environment, for instance, in our partnership with retail outlets such as Carrefour Supermarket, we have adopted electric bikes for deliveries. The bikes are fuel efficient and pollutes less helping us reduce our carbon footprints,” he said.
“We have over 14 e-bikes for deliveries each covering 100 kilometres in a day, its notable that the bikes only need to be charged twice in a day,” he added.
Boosted by the growth in e-commerce industry, Kenya’s logistics sector has witnessed continued growth ushering in new service providers competing for profit.
Latest Communications Authority data indicates that the number of postal and courier operations in the country stood at 269 in 2021, a 26 per cent increase from 2019.
