Nigerian e-commerce company Konga has rolled out an extensive warehouse infrastructure project across the country as it looks to service thousands more online merchants.

Konga launched in July 2012, and now has close to 60,000 merchants registered on its platform, while it has also opened hubs in South Africa and China.

Logistics remains a challenge to the e-commerce sector in Nigeria, with the country currently ranking 90th in the world Logistic Performance Index ranking. 'Fulfilled by Konga' is aimed at addressing this, with the service to enable merchants that currently sell through Konga to store their merchandise in Konga warehouses and have orders delivered by Konga's in-house fulfillment team.

Konga said the initiative would reduce merchant order processing times from 40 hours to three hours, a 90% reduction. While at present merchants have up to three days to drop off their items at a distribution site, where Konga's team will go on to deliver the item on their behalf, Fulfilled by Konga will allow items to be selected and shipped on the same day.

"Konga has cemented a name for itself as an engine of commerce and trade in Africa, and the infrastructure project we are currently deploying has been developed to act as a catalyst for the entire e-commerce market in Nigeria," said Konga CEO Shola Adekoya.

Konga's flagship distribution centre in Lagos is a 60,000 sq ft warehouse that houses over 200,000 items. With the launch of 'Fulfilled by Konga', plans are in place to double its size, while the company has also put in place a country-wide infrastructure project to build fulfilment centres in Abuja and Port Harcourt.

"Warehousing and distribution is notoriously challenging in Nigeria; we have set ourselves a Herculean task of building a network of technologically advanced warehousing sites across Nigeria, that will bring speedy, cost efficient sales solutions for our growing number of merchants looking to do business online, and will act as a considerable boost to Nigeria's growing ecommerce sector," Adekoya said.