Sabi, an African B2B marketplace, is expanding its scope and aiming to become the backbone of business on the continent through support of informal merchants. 

This is according to Ademola Adesina, cofounder and president of Nigerian-founded Sabi.

Adesina tells ITWeb Africa that the company is looking to empower merchants and spark innovation to address their biggest challenges.

The company intends to increase sustainability initiatives, which it says will assist to reduce environmental and social impacts in the value chain by allowing suppliers, aggregators, and producers to achieve or exceed traceability and sustainability standards.

Adesina says: "We believe doing this helps create market access for Africa's commodities while meeting global standards for sustainability."

The company says that currently its digital platform provides informal merchants and artisanal miners with access to global markets, but it wants to enhance and refine its services to help them further.

Sabi says that, in less than three years, its platform has grown to serve more than 250 000 users and has generated a gross merchant value of $1 billion.

Adesina says that disruptive technology is not just about innovation, for its own sake. “It’s about creating opportunities, addressing challenges, and building a more resilient and inclusive economy.”

The company is evolving, it says, and has begun to provide payment, logistics, and traceability services to merchants.

Adesina says: “Our vision is to be the backbone of commerce in Africa by helping businesses grow and succeed. At our core, we believe that empowering Africa’s informal merchants is the key to achieving this vision.

“They are the key to achieving trusted, traceable, and responsible access to the continent’s goods and commodities.”

He says Sabi has also focused on meeting the broad needs of logistics management, sales listings, and inventory tracking for merchants and wholesalers.

Sabi claims to be the "only African company" that integrates the entire supply chain for African goods and commodities.

The company’s intentions for empowering African commerce come as global retail e-commerce sales exceeded $5.8 trillion last year and, according to Statisa, are expected to exceed $8 trillion by 2027.

Against this backdrop, Adesina believes Sabi’s two key principles will hold it in good stead. He says these principles are the company’s ability to focus on market needs, and an “instinct for aligning the incentives of our stakeholders across the value chain”.

Adesina says Sabi's main differentiator has been its ability to match the needs of its users, global buyers, merchants, aggregators, distributors, and staff.

“Organising the informal market and extracting value for global buyers brings transparency to transactions that would otherwise remain in the shadows.”

Asked by ITWeb Africa to explain how the company will sidestep expansion challenges especially those faced by African brands, Adesina says: “We manage these complexities by staying asset-light, which lets us focus on efficiency and retain our agility.”

He adds that the informal market is often underestimated, and this is where Sabi focuses its efforts, with the ambition to get the continent’s merchants, traders and producers interacting.