TOFA, Others Partner To Enhance Intra- African, Global Online Trade

Traders of Africa (TOFA), a Pan African Online market hub, AliExpress and Momo partnered to enhance Intra- African and global trade.

The partnership is centred on facilitating seamless, trustworthy trade processes between sellers and buyers in Africa and across the world.

Speaking on this, the chief executive officer TOFA,  Uju Uzo-Ojinnaka said that the incorporation of AliExpress and Momo Nigeria was to provide greater access to African made products.

Uzo-Ojinnaka said that it was in alignment with the objectives of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA).

She said that the benefit of the partnership with AliExpress and Momo was that TOFA acted as a trustworthy middleman marketplace, saying that the company would ensure that buyers and sellers could trade in their different African local currencies.

According to her, issues with conversion to dollars and lack of trust that accompanied online trading is a thing of the past with the TOFA online marketplace.

“This partnership with AliExpress gives room to over 200 million items available to easily come into the country or anywhere in Africa after making payments in their local currency facilitated by Momo.”

The front-end developer, TOFA, Victor Ejiogu said that the platform was not just an e-commerce website but a full marketplace with deals directly with companies, buyers and sellers across the continent and the world.

He said that the problem the platform was trying to solve was the lack of trust in transactions between buyers and sellers and the difficulties people experienced in paying for items on AliExpress.

He said that with Momo application onboard, buyers and sellers had automatic access to TOFA, where they can also negotiate.

The executive director, Strategy, MoMo PSB, Mr Usoro Usoro said that MoMo’s involvement was in line with its mandate to drive financial inclusion and digital inclusion and connectivity in Nigeria and Africa.

He said that Momo was helping businesses on the platform to make payments in a simple and seamless manner.

According to him, customers on MoMo can simply click on Tofa and pay using the momo account.

“We are trying to build a payment trail for Africa in local currency, and with MoMo, you can send money to about 14 Africa countries in local currency without dollar or foreign exchange hassles.”

Director, African Operations, AliExpress, Geoffrey Jian said that Africa possessed immense potentials and opportunities in trade.

Jian said that the platform would further drive business-to-business, business-to-country and international trade running into millions of dollars.

The deputy managing director, SpeedAF, Emeka Nwagwu promised seamless logistics delivery for every good bought online from China on the TOFA online marketplace.