Nigerian Startup Sabi Expands To South Africa To Tap Into Informal Economy

Nigeria’s e-commerce startup, Sabi, an unbiased business-to-business (B2B) platform has reportedly opened an office for its operation in the southern region of the continent.

It is reported that the office was launched in Johannesburg, South Africa, the office was open with intentions to tap into the nation’s Nine Billion US Dollars ($9B) informal economy structure.

To make the expansion of its reach and services possible, Sabi has collaborated with Vumele in South Africa.

Vumele, being a technology platform, allows merchants to gain impress to tools that help them function, which includes business tools, payment tools, logistics, and financial services.

In a media release on Tuesday, SABI’s chief executive and co-founder, Anu Adasolum, confirmed that the expansion to South Africa is in partnership with Vumele.

This information was made known through a press release by Anu Adasolum, Sabi’s CEO and Co-founder. she confirmed reports of expansion and partnerships that the company has made.

In addition to the expansion, the company’s mobile application has taken on some new features. The features include an e-commerce shop called Merch Buy, a purchase processing tool, a credit tracker, and a performance tracker.

There is also a feature on the app that lets merchants track their sales, with data compilation of who made the purchase, enabling merchants to provide better services with respect to delivery. The app dubbed this feature “My Shop”.

Sabi’s Expansion And Expected Impact

Sabi’s function has always been the provision of a platform that scales the activities of goods and services, through its platform, therefore fostering stakeholders in the informal department to have and provide value and verse versa.

The start-up was launched in 2020 and was co-founded by CEO, Anu Adasolum and Ademola. Within the period of establishment and expansion to South Africa, Sabi has established an office in Kenya, also tapping into the informal economy of the East African nation. This was while it had South Africa and Ivory Coast in its expansion plans.

In Anu’s opinion, this launch and partnership will enable the company to tap into the nation’s informal economy, which she says has been neglected by organizations across the continent

Although Sabi’s competitive strategy is unknown, as there are also readily established brands in its chosen sector in South Africa, yet the startup is said to be confident in its ability to succeed.Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are also part of the countries Sabi plans to expand to in the future.