Sim Shagaya: On Building The Next Big Thing, Konga, Africa's Version Of Alibaba

Simdul Shagaya, the CEO of Nigeria’s largest online mall, Konga has disclosed during an interview he granted recently to Forbes’ Farai Gundan that his vision for Konga is to build it as Africa’s Alibaba, and of course the biggest online mall in Africa. The Harvard M.B.A graduate, Shagaya revealed that Konga, through hard work, innovation and an all-consuming desire to better the lives of this society through technology, leads the field in Nigeria today in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). See excerpts from the interview.

Chatting with Simdul Shagaya is like an intense, super-charged colloquy on doing business….in Africa. “We are the custodians of the dreams of the middle-class of Africa,” Shagaya emphasized repeatedly, as he talked about his fast-growing e-commerce company, Konga.com, that he founded just 2 years ago, July 2012. With his ambitious goal of making Konga.com ’the engine of trade and commerce in Africa’, the e-retailer’s dynamic founder and CEO is betting big that Africa is poised to be the next frontier for online retail. 

Notwithstanding failed attempts with a dating site (alarina.com), a job placement site (jobclan.com), a classified site (gbogbo.com) and media streaming service (iNollywood.com), the timing was wrong. These startups were just way ahead of their time; the experiences and insights gained from these entrepreneurial endeavors however, would eventually enable the Harvard M.B.A graduate to pioneer the online industry in Nigeria, particularly e-commerce retailing. “Konga, through hard work, innovation and an all-consuming desire to better the lives of this society through technology, leads the field in Nigeria today in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV),” said Shagaya, who also launched a sprawling e-commerce platform, Konga Marketplace in 2014 with the aim of becoming a provider of e-commerce infrastructure services for all e-commerce market participants.

Read full story on: http://www.forbes.com/sites/faraigundan/2015/01/07/sim-shagaya-on-building-the-next-big-thing-konga-africas-version-of-alibaba-part-one/

Source: Forbes Online