Roberta Edu’s Path to Walmart: A Lesson in Due Diligence and Business Integrity

Roberta Edu’s Path to Walmart: A Lesson in Due Diligence and Business Integrity

 

Breaking into the competitive American market is a dream for many brands, and for Roberta Edu, CEO of Nigeria’s Moppet, that dream came closer to reality when her baby formula brand received an invitation to join the Walmart Marketplace. Yet, her path to this milestone was anything but straightforward. In a journey marked by caution, wisdom, and resilience, Edu shares how stringent due diligence practices helped her sidestep potential pitfalls and secure Moppet’s reputation as it prepared for this significant market entry.

Edu’s story highlights the importance of integrity and verification in high-stakes business moves. Reflecting on a prior offer from a distributor promising lucrative market access in the United States, Edu admits the initial excitement clouded her judgment. “In your quest to do business, expand, and penetrate the market, please do not close your eyes to red flags and don’t dabble in dirty waters knowingly or unknowingly,” she shared. Her husband, YM, urged her to carefully investigate the distributor’s background and funding sources, eventually uncovering troubling signs that led them to end the deal.

The experience became a valuable lesson in risk management, as Walmart later asked for similar documentation to ensure Moppet’s compliance with international regulations. Edu now emphasizes that “due diligence today prevents regrets tomorrow,” a principle that has strengthened Moppet’s growth journey and reinforced her commitment to ethical business practices. Her story stands as a powerful reminder to entrepreneurs worldwide: integrity and thorough verification are the true gateways to sustainable success.

 

African start-ups at the forefront of digital innovations transforming Africa’s economy

African start-ups at the forefront of digital innovations transforming Africa’s economy

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African tech innovators at the recent Africa Money & Defi Summit in Accra, Ghana proved that they are at the forefront of change on the continent, from fintech to agritech.

 

“Africa has the ability to leapfrog into decentralized finance (Defi) and smooth over the difficulties of cross-border finance through blockchain and web3,” said participant PayBox co-founder David Boye-Doku.

One of the beneficiaries of the ITC NTF V program, PayBox is a fast growing African fintech start-up cross-border mobile growth engine enabling easy access to offline and online digital payment and business solutions.

“Decentralizing finance in Africa will give everyone access and the choice of alternative currencies; it offers financial and digital inclusion,” Boye-Doku said.

ITC, through its NTF V Tech project in Ghana, sponsored fintech start-ups PayBox, Motito, Pal and Makewehelp to exhibit at the West Africa Money and Defi event. Fintech leaders like MFS Africa and Paystack and Web3-focused businesses Revio and Mazzuma also attended, sharing their industry knowledge.

Africa has the ability to leapfrog into decentralized finance (Defi) and smooth over the difficulties of cross-border finance through blockchain and web3

“It was amazing. We met many Nigerians who were looking for products that worked with web2.0 and web3 blockchain. We explained what we are doing in web2.0 and what we have started for web3 and they were interested,” Boye-Doku said.

PayBox began its business journey by offering mobile payment solutions to small and medium sized enterprises.

“The next phase is infusing web3 rails on mobile payments so that a local wallet can become an international wallet for small businesses and millennials in Africa. Your phone number can become a crypto wallet to send funds easily across Africa,” said Boye-Doku.

Web3 wallets can be web-based, mobile-based, or even hardware based. Their relatively simple user interaction provides the user access to decentralized blockchain-based apps that serve as gateways to crypto assets. This allows users to instantly send and receive those  assets via mobile phone number, email or crypto address.

Boye-Doku believes  central bank digital currency (CBDC) is the key to the rapid development and growth of African economies. “It would allow capital to move freely at lightning speed with near zero transaction  fees and convert crypto into currencies. This means we can spend in our domains as well as transact with people not in our domains,” he said.

“We chatted with a representative from the Bank of Ghana, and they are looking for a token that will sit on top of the Ghanaian CBDC. We are already building an exchange token so they can ride on that,” he said.

ITC helped Paybox to attend the summit. “ITC has been amazing,” said Boye-Doku. “They play a key role in empowering start-ups, giving them access to information, training and a global presence.”

The rise of Sub-Saharan Africa as a fintech hub

The rise of Sub-Saharan Africa as a fintech hub

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest-growing investment zones for financial technology companies according to new research says Forbes. The GSM Association says in its Mobile Economy, Sub-Saharan Africa 2019 report that the region will remain the fastest growing worldwide. Predicting a total subscriber base of over 600 million by 2025, which represents approximately half the population, Sub-Saharan Africa will become a flagship for mobile disruption.

One of the driving forces behind this growth, according to Mike Smits, co-founder, uKheshe, a micro transaction platform, is the unbanked: “Mastercard reports that while around 1.2bn adults opened bank accounts for the first time over the past decade, 1.7bn remain outside the formal banking sector worldwide. Our challenge, as a continent, is to reach these “unbanked” individuals and better understand, as financial service providers, why they opt to stay in the informal sector.”

Smits says that since launching uKheshe 10 months ago, the plight for financial inclusion has become glaringly obvious: “While progress has been made in terms of mobile money, it’s become imperative that we move beyond that and look into digital payment solutions. What we have realised is that financial inclusion is not just about technology disruption, but more about solving greater economic problems.”

He says that consumers need simpler, more cost-effective ways to do simple tasks such as sending or receiving money and buying airtime as examples. Of course, financial inclusion goes beyond consumers and plays a far greater role in the lives of small-scale entrepreneurs: “The gains for these informal merchants is significant, bringing income for the community at large. We have seen this as so many of our users have trebled their businesses since using our platform to trade,” says Smits.

It’s ultimately about inclusive economic growth and how digital financial services can play a major role in the increase of financial inclusion in Africa. With an ever-growing mobile base, Sub-Saharan Africa has the potential to lead the way, while also creating widespread economic prosperity.