GoMarkit- High Impact innovators at Innovations Axis launch Sierra Leone’s first mobile app for grocery shoppers

Enabling a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem has become the real deal in global efforts towards solving global problems and building a sustainable future. Nations have unanimously acknowledged and agreed that Entrepreneurship is an answer to sustainable economic growth and development, and Sierra Leone has refused to be left behind on this very trend. More significantly, her youths are steadily proving that they are problem solvers, are equally talented, very innovative, and given the right entrepreneurial conditions, I.e, an entrepreneur- friendly ecosystem, they are very well capable of creating high-impact and sustainable solutions to the many problems being faced by the nation and her people.

GoMarkit Mobile app: a one stop shop for grocery shoppers in Freetown

Fadja D Barry and Francis Bangura, a group of young, vibrant, high impact entrepreneurs from Innovations Axis business incubator and accelerator, combined with a co-working, launched their GoMarkit mobile app on the 16th October, 2019. GoMarkit is Sierra Leone’s first online platform, a one -stop shop for grocery shoppers in Freetown. The mobile app gives shoppers a quick and convenient access to a wide variety of food items ranging from fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, locally made Sierra Leonean products, and other food and household items.
Shoppers are only is required to download the app from google store, create an account, select their items, check out and request delivery by providing address, contact person and contact number. Payment can be done on arrival and a delivery fee is charged for purchases below Le 50,000.

The story behind GoMarkit
We noticed that an estimate of 87% of local vendors would wake up at 4am, go to Dovecut market, and then chattered poda poda or taxis to their premises using basket and bags. We realized how difficult it for them to get their daily supplies as most of them are dealing with fresh fruits and vegetables. So we started sourcing produce from villages and farmers, and delivering directly to vendors. As the demand for our services increased, we started facing major challenges of meeting demand. We invested from our personal allowances a sum of Le 12 million in the first six months and made a profit of about Le 4 million.

Within the six months, we were able to establish GoMarkit branded stalls. In other to get feedback from our vendors and improve on our services, we conducted a series of our customer satisfaction and feedback sessions with the vendors and their customers. More than 90% of their customers commended the quality of vegetables and fruits being sold to them. However, most of the customers expressed their desire to have the vendors take the groceries to their homes regularly as they are mostly business people engaged in office jobs or other works of life. This was when we acknowledged the need for an online grocery shopping platform and a mobile app that also offers door-to-door delivery. We are all about, and pride ourselves in value addition, maximum efficiency, and high impact.

The Impact
In Freetown, like all other parts of Sierra Leone, grocery shopping can only be done by physically going into the grocery shops or local market places and buying. Consequently, markets are often congested, unhygienic, overcrowded, overly rowdy and generally inefficient in service delivery. This is more so frustrating for consumers who unwillingly find themselves in unhygienic and congested local markets and stalls, having to deal with uneven prices, the risk of unethical sellers who mixed food with other potentially hazardous substances to increase quantity, and supermarkets with very little to no variety of fresh organic produce or locally made items.
GoMarkit innovators have clearly defined the value chain and added value in each stage from ethical sourcing of produce directly from farmers, supply to vendors, into creating a mobile app to eliminator many challenges and problems faced by the final consumers. Such value creation and impact is a blue-print and an inspiration to rent-seeking entrepreneurs who have been dominant in Sierra Leone.

Meet the innovators
Fadja D Barry is a Strategic marketing professional with five years of experience in Network marketing and Digital communications. He has in depth industry knowledge and experience in marketing campaign and strategy to elevate brand profiles. He speaks both French & English (advanced professional level).
Francis Bangura is a software developer, data scientist and an open source enthusiast. He has over six years of professional experience in web, apps and software development. He is currently a software development consultant for IDTLab Sierra Leone.