‘How Nigerians can get good bargain, best deals’

Ademuyiwa Adebola Taofeek is the CEO at Royale PR, and co-founder of Bango Nigeria, a data-driven platform which aims to help Nigerians get value for money, especially across all the market segments including fast moving consumer goods and others. In this interview with Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf, the techpreneur shares insights on how his team is changing the narrative within the business ecosystem. Excerpts:

You have expressed concern over what you described as arbitrary pricing. Do you think this battle is worth the while?

No doubt, the Nigerian market is indeed the buyer’s nightmare with the different price regimes being arbitrarily forced on the unsuspecting consumers by mostly shylock sellers who in their greed will do everything to profiteer at the expense of the buying public. The result is that the hapless consumers use up their disposable income without getting any real value for money and ultimately the economy is the worst for it because of price inflation, which adversely affects the general living condition.

This is why we decided to offer a provable solution to address this seeming challenge which easily sticks out like a sore thumb. Myself and Caleb Adenegan, my partner, conceived the idea of Bango, a data-driven concept to confront the hydra-headed monster of price arbitrariness, pauperisation of the consumers, to mention just a few.

But the name Bango Nigeria sounds foreign. What does it mean? Is it a local or foreign derivative?

It was derived from two words, which are Bargain and Go. It is not a foreign derivative. What informed the choice of name is that we needed a name that expressed a satisfied experience, something that showed a buyer had a good experience before leaving the market. Bango is all about helping buyers save money and time when they go to the market by providing them realtime information on what other buyers are paying in markets around them. It is a system we’ve built to reward fair pricing and sellers that do well by buyers.

Besides, Bango was inspired by the experience of the founder, who two years ago intended to get baskets of tomatoes for Salah in Lagos but was quoted a very ludicrous price, which he believed the farmers who actually planted the tomatoes would not benefit much from. He made a tweet about it, and some people tried to justify it. He then went ahead to get the tomatoes from Jos and found out that the total price it took for him to buy and get them delivered to his house in Lagos was not up to one-third of the price he was told in the Lagos market. The realisation that there are sellers offering fair prices and doing well by buyers in markets across the country, but that people hardly hear of them, was what inspired the creation of Bango.

Which organisation  are you benchmarking your standards with, in terms of the projections for Bango?

To be honest, at the moment, we are building a commerce platform that actually works for us as Nigerians and Africans, and the benchmark is us, as this is a never-been-done-before solution.

What is the unique selling point of Bango?

It is community-powered.

With the benefit of hindsight, Bango comes across as a data-driven service. What is the authenticity or believability of this data? Do you have a way of verifying the data?

Buyers are the ones who post these prices. If a buyer goes to a seller based on information uploaded by another buyer and the seller tries to be inconsistent with pricing, buyers will have the ability to make comments and report the inconsistency for other community members to be aware of. Remember, this is community-driven.

Without sounding patronizing, I know you’re offering a public service, no doubt with intrinsic value to it. But as they say, what’s the WFM: what’s in it for you? Who is bankrolling the project?

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What we want to achieve is to help everybody save money and time, and this cuts across every part of the process involved in purchasing these commodities and delivery. It is currently bootstrapped because, right now, we want to first show people how letting each other know what the market is saying can help them go to the market more equipped with the right information. This, in turn, empowers them and helps them save money and time.

In terms of user interface, how easy is it for prospects to navigate the site?

At the moment, it is very easy to use. All you have to do is sign up and either find prices or submit prices. We intend to continue to make it easier as we progress.

Bearing in mind that the majority of sellers dealing in consumer goods and produce are averagely literate, and the digital divide among this group could be wider compared to the literate community of buyers, how can they benefit from the service?

It doesn’t matter if you are illiterate or literate when it comes to Bango. It doesn’t require literacy to do well by your buyers—that’s all you need to do as a seller. You do well by your buyers, and your buyers share it with other buyers by sharing the experience on Bango.  At the moment, it is very easy to use. All you have to do is sign up and either find prices or submit prices. We intend to continue to make it easier as we progress. The site usability is very seamless because once you log in it just pops up. https://www.bango.ng

Are you thinking of infusing local dialects so as to be able to appeal to that segment of the market?

Yes, we are. Before every price is submitted, a seller must consent to their information being shared.