Chuba Ezekwesili profiles Sim Shagaya: Sim has seen the future (Y!/YNaija Person of the Year 2015 Nominee)

The name Sim Shagaya may not be very popular among young Nigerian folk but mention “Konga”, and the eyes of your listener will light up in acknowledgement. Nigerians know the very popular brand that has revolutionized the e-commerce sector in Nigeria. They also know Dealdey.

Sim Shagaya is the founder and CEO of Konga.com as well as the founder of Dealdey, both online retail platforms in Nigeria. Sim has been described as one of the people leading the transformation of the e-commerce sector in the country – but that is only a mild way of describing his landmark achievements.

Sim worked with Google as the first African employee. Clearlu, his time there birthed in him a desire to replicate that in Nigeria’s IT space in Nigeria. After trying and failing with a few online portals in Nigeria, Sim eventually successfully set up Dealdey, and subsequently Konga.com.

What Sim Shagaya aspired to do with Konga was to infuse technology into all the market places and not necessarily conquer the market places. Quite interestingly, his progressive approach to business has largely transformed Nigerian e-commerce.

Sim can rightly be called a progressive because in a society where people are more concerned with profit-making and undermining the competition, Sim runs a company that is solutions-oriented and sees competition as something that is good for the consumer and producer.

According to him, competition makes you run faster and helps you consider better ways to satisfy the customer. He encourages entrepreneurs to think first about the customer. Once your focus is on the customer, you’ll do fine.

Sim identifies two forms of e-commerce: Retail, where people purchase goods and sell them on to consumers and then Market place, a platform for multiple buyers and sellers to come and trade.

Although Konga.com started out as an online retail store, Sim deciphered that what Nigerians most needed was a marketplace for multiple buyers and sellers so the marketplace on Konga.com was launched in 2014.

Right now, a good number of the items sold on konga are sold by Nigerians themselves.

Sim’s company has created a platform for Nigerians to be able to trade from the comfort of their homes and still be involved in any other businesses they desire. The konga.com site was ranked as the most visited Nigerian website in January this year by Alexa.com.

At a time when the Nigerian Technology ecosystem is experiencing budding growth, Sim Shagaya stands with a few others to drive that growth. He does this not only with his business models in e-commerce but also by investing in other startups.

In June this year, Sim invested in the new ridesharing service in Nigeria; Go My Way; a clear indication of his involvement in shaping and growing the future of technology in Nigeria.

But Konga of course remains his biggest contribution. Sim also continues to innovate and evolve with Konga.com. In June this year, the company launched KongaPay, a payment solution to facilitate cashless, electronic payments.

This was done in partnership with a good number of Nigerian banks. This solution can regarded as timely, considering that the country is currently striving towards establishing a cashless society.

Sim anticipates that over time the uncertainties that customers associate with pre-paying for goods and services they are yet to receive will be removed. It also further further emphasizes Sim Shagaya’s focus on solutions.

The Yakata sales on the Konga.com website which was introduced a couple of years ago, this year raked in record-breaking sales of over N1.2 billion.

Thankfully, the servers did not buckle under the weight of heavy traffic as was witnessed in 2013, a testament to how much growth and development has taken place over the years.

Sim Shagaya serves as a worthy model to young, aspiring entrepreneurs. He embodies attributes that define successful entrepreneurship. He is resilient, solutions-oriented, places the customer first and is constantly innovating.

We can say confidently that Sim Shagaya has seen the future of e-commerce in Nigeria and he is fast driving the industry to exploit its fullest potential.

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*Ezekwesili runs the Naijanomics blog and is one of the co-founders of the design and identity business, Akanka

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