TradeNet Voices

we've moved

noreply@blogger.com (markd) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:29:00 +0000

This blog has moved to esoko.blogspot.com

Yussif Yucubu, TradeAgent, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

In the Upper Eastern Ghanaian town of Bawku, along the border with Burkina Faso, it is not uncommon to see young boys taking their family’s cattle into the bush. Armed with just a stick, a few young boys manage to keep dozens of cattle together and moving in the same direction, despite their proportional disadvantage. Yussif Yucubu was one of those boys, and for as long as he can remember, he’s been taking cattle into the bush on the weekends, after school, and during school vacations. As a young man, Yussif made the decision to leave his hometown and move to Accra to attend computer school, and a few years later, when TradeNet Ghana was interviewing for the position of a TradeAgent in Ashaiman Cattle Market, he was the first to sign up. This TradeAgent would need to know about livestock, understand the ins and outs of the market, and be able to use a computer and a mobile phone with ease. A 28 year-old energetic and bright Yussif was an easy choice. He now works as a TradeAgent, registering traders in the market, uploading offers to buy and sell cattle, sheep and goats, and connecting sellers in his market with traders he finds online. He also takes trips outside of the city to smaller villages so he can register those rural traders and transporters on TradeNet as well. Yussif speaks 6 languages, all of which he uses for his work. He says that when he left his small town for Accra his family thought he might abandon the family trade, and although they were concerned about the legacy, they pushed him to move forward and learn new things anyway. But now, as a TradeAgent in Ashaiman Cattle Market, it looks as if he’s found a way to seamlessly combine his new life with his old one.

Garcia Honvoh, Quality Assurance Specialist, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:55:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

There are very few people in the world who can say 'we're updating the site today, and then we get to test!' with genuine, palpable enthusiasm. BusyLab is lucky enough to have discovered one of them. Garcia Honvoh, known in the office as Mama G, has been at BusyLab for two years working as a Quality Assurance Specialist. She says she is 'too curious', a characteristic she sees as a necessity to thrive in the world of QA. That curiosity, along with her determination to get to the bottom of any problem she’s investigating, has been part of her personality since she was a young girl growing up in Benin. Now, though, she gets to use it in a way she feels can positively impact people, and to her it’s the perfect job. Garcia loves finding defects in TradeNet before the public sees them, because at the end of the day, she says, QA exists to help developers create the best product they can, ensuring that users have a positive, hassle-free experience. It’s impossible to convey Garcia’s fabulous energy through the written word, but it can be said that she is not only consistent in keeping BusyLab’s software bug free, but also in cheering up the office on a daily basis. Garcia and her husband, a radio frequency engineer who also hails from Benin, are expecting their first child in October. They plan to teach the new baby all about technology, doing their part to usher in a new, tech savvy generation in West Africa.

Agnes Agyapong, Retailer, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:40:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

"The market is not going like it used to" Agnes Agyapong explains, "it seems there is no money, and prices rise anyway". Agnes, a fruit and vegetable retailer in Accra's Mallam Atta market, has been working in the same corner, selling the same commodities, for 20 years. Her stall has an abundance of beautiful fresh cabbage, carrots, eggplants, shallots, pineapples, and mangoes, and positioned immediately next to her, behind a mountain of eggs, is her younger sister. They stress that though they have seen a lot of ups and downs in the market since they began, this seems different. At the end of the day, Agnes says that she usually has to sell her goods at a lower price just to have money for that night, and that this is, of course, the nightmare scenario for a retailer. Agnes just shrugs when asked how she can calculate a profit when times are as hard as they are now. In amazingly good spirits despite her troubles, Agnes says that for the last 20 years she has used her contacts in larger Accra markets, visiting once a week to buy at wholesale, bringing the goods back to her neighborhood market, and selling at retail prices. She works from 6 am-6 pm everyday at her stall, while her two children are in school. There is no market association in Mallam Atta, and Agnes wonders what an association could do for her anyway; she feels that her personal connections are what help her most in business. As a retailer, she spends very little on her phone for business, rather spending money on transport to the larger markets to buy what she needs and meet her contacts face to face to negotiate a decent price. For now, Agnes says, she, her sister, and her friends in the market are just waiting for things to look up.

Malik Abubakar-Abdul, Trader, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

Ever wondered the difference between a cowpea from Northeastern Ghana and one from Southern Niger? Or Northern Togo? If so, Malik Abubakar-Abdul is your man. He'll happily show you the many varieties of cowpeas and maize in his shop, even attempting to make clear the minutia that differentiates one variety from the other. A 39-year-old trader in Accra, Malik has been trading for over 20 years, learning about and taking over the business from his father and uncle. He’s been a user of TradeNet for a year now, and has been contacted several times from buyers both inside and outside West Africa. He sees great hope in the opportunities TradeNet can bring, and says he is blessed to be a part of it. But his frustration with work and with the capability of these new technologies to really help his business is the same frustration that so many in the world of agriculture share: middlemen. And because so many middlemen have procured bank accounts in the last few years, it makes it that much easier to do business with them instead of with the farmers themselves. A large trader like Malik can now establish a relationship with a middleman, call when he needs goods, place the money straight into a bank account, and that same day have the goods on the way to Accra. A deal is done, and Malik has not even left his market. What would help, he says, is if the farmers were more organized, and as a group could get a bank account for themselves. He knows he could get a better price directly from them, and that they could have higher profits without the middlemen, but Malik says it’s a difficult cycle for one man alone to break. He works with seven sellers, all of whom have mobile phones, and he spends about 10 USD a week on phone credit, which he feels is quite low. He has two children who are going to school in Accra as well as learning Arabic from Malik himself, who is fluent.

Xose Ahlijah, Developer, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 14:45:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

When he was 10 years old, Xose Ahlijah watched his father bring a PC into their Accra household for the first time. While Xose’s father planned to use the simple machine to write documents for work, his young son had other ideas. And it seemed that the more rules and regulations his Dad created to keep Xose away from it, the more trouble Xose was willing to get into just to get his hands on it. His Dad eventually acquiesced, and began teaching him all that he knew. Fourteen years later, at the age of 24, Xose is a web developer working on TradeNet. Between attending IT school and teaching himself, Xose is now fluent in Basic, Java, C++, PHP and ColdFusion. Because TradeNet is so innovative, and the team in Accra so close, Xose feels truly lucky to be where he is. He dreams of a day when he can walk out his door on the way to work and hear people talking about TradeNet--referring to the market prices, forex rates, weather alerts, or offers to buy and sell they received via SMS. He wants to feel, in the streets of Accra, the same way that Google employees must feel in the streets of the Bay area, overhearing the public talk about their product as a part of their everyday lives. Asked about frustrations, Xose gets a perplexed look and follows it right up with a big grin—for a good developer, he explains, coding frustrations are equivalent to stimulating challenges, and nothing could be better than a great challenge. And as an aside, Xose’s not just a star developer--he just planted 5 acres of cassava outside of Accra, and is waiting for the chance to upload an Offer to Sell onto the system he helped create.

Issa Keita, Trader, Mali

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:11:00 +0000

Bamako, Mali

In the hustle and bustle of Bamako’s frenzied markets, there is one man, donned with a suit and a smile, who has tapped into something he finds extraordinary. Since 2006, Issa Keita has been posting offers to sell on TradeNet, and transforming the very nature of the export business that he’s been in for 15 years. With contacts he made as a result of his posts, Issa has exported maize to Niger, cashews and peanuts to Senegal, shea nuts to Denmark, cowpeas to Burkina Faso and Togo…and that’s just the beginning of the list. These deals are quite large as well; rarely less than 100 tons and many times twice that much. Clearly that makes for a great deal money, which Issa estimates at over one million US dollars to date. Before he used TradeNet, Issa received a lot of local inquiries about his commodities but few people were able to come up with the capital to follow through with a deal. Now, able buyers all over West Africa and Europe are seeing his offers, either via SMS or the web, and as a result his business is booming. What’s best about TradeNet, Issa says, is that so much useful commercial information is within reach to anyone who wants to utilize it. His only frustration is that many people in the industry don’t jump on the opportunity to change the way they do business, because Issa sees taking advantage of such opportunities as essential to being a good businessman. He estimates that he spends around $600 a month on his phone for work, and also uses the internet every day. As more people come online, Issa expects to spend more time doing business online and less on his phone, hopefully saving money for his company. Issa was born and raised in Bamako, and cannot imagine living and working anywhere else. He has four children.

Bahati Tweve, Broker, Tanzania

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:29:00 +0000

Mufindi, Iringa Region, Tanzania

Ask Bahati Tweve a question about agri-business in the Mufindi district of Tanzania and you are bound to get an earful--because he’s bound to have had firsthand experience. Bahati has been/is a farmer, trader, broker, trainer and shushushu (market spy). His newest business venture is focused on his work as a broker--he has begun linking farmers and businessmen, charging a fee with each deal made. What sets Bahati apart from other brokers, though, is that he makes the details of the transaction transparent for all parties involved. In local supply chains dominated by mendacious middlemen, Bahati is rare, but after all of his years working in local agriculture he is convinced that market transparency is the key to improved livelihoods in his community. Bahati says that he has to first identify buyers and sellers face to face, which can be quite time consuming in the rural areas, as he sometimes has to ride his bike or walk where there is no public transportation available. After he trusts his new partners he does use his mobile to contact many of them, although he estimates that only about 60% have phones. Bahati spends about $50 a month on phone cards, but believes he will spend more in the future as coverage improves in rural communities. He himself has four different numbers, and uses whatever network has the best coverage in the area he’s in at the moment of making a call. Bahati is raising six children, and says that even though he works constantly, he still struggles to make enough money to really get ahead.

Zakari Ali Jony, Enumeration Manager, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:07:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

Zakari Ali Jony isn't a farmer or a trader, but he does have the pulse of Ghana's markets at his fingertips. As the manager of TradeNet Ghana’s enumeration program, Jony ensures that market information from markets all around the country is sent into the system via sms or the web. He’s nearly spellbound when he talks about how different his world is as compared to the world his parents inhabited--information, he says, brings people power through choice, and technology has the potential to bring that information to the very people who need it most. He says it's essential to have market information properly collected and easily available so that farmers and traders can make more informed choices. While it can be frustrating for him to see people in the market unwilling to explore new opportunities, he remains hopeful. Jony grew up in Accra, and is now raising his young daughter there. He travels often inside Ghana, expanding the enumeration network and training new users. In an average week, Jony oversees over 500 prices, 30 new contacts and 40 offers to buy and sell come into TradeNet through his enumerators. As the network expands, the numbers continue to rise.

Hajia Talhatu Kudi, Trader, Ghana

noreply@blogger.com (thebelgian) — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:43:00 +0000

Greater Accra, Ghana

It’s easy to see why Hajia Talhatu was given a new last name by friends and co-workers in Accra—Kudi, the Hausa word meaning money. Hajia Talhatu Kudi started working in Nima market with her mother when she was just 11 years old; she later took over the business and has since grown it considerably, putting her boundless energy to work—Hajia is proud to say that she now buys and sells in metric tonnes what her mother began buying and selling in kilos so many years ago. Hajia deals mainly in cowpea, wheat, sesame and millet, travelling bi-weekly to Northern Ghana to purchase in bulk from producers, then hiring transporters to bring the goods down to Accra. She usually works with the same set of producers and traders, but says that she still needs to take these frequent journeys north to ensure that the goods meet her quality standards. Hajia says that finding new contacts and markets is something she's always interested in doing, but that she needs capital to be able to grow her business outside of her regular contacts with whom she has mutual trust and works with on a credit basis. Hajia has five children, and is putting them through school with the money she earns as a trader in Nima. She shared her thoughts on TradeNet, as well as her infectious spirit, with CNN’s Inside Africa a few months ago.

Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, Fruit Exporter, Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (markd) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:33:00 +0000

Cho Lac District, Ben Tre Province, Southern Vietnam.

Ms. Hong is a dynamic woman that has a growing business exporting local fruits to China and Europe. She specializes in Rambuttan and Longan, and has devised ways to trick the fruit into staying fresh while being frozen for long transport periods to China. At first the Chinese sourced here, now they rely on her. She estimates that she spends about $500/month on phone costs calling her farmers and other traders to source the product for the Chinese. Her voice gets hoarse at times, she says. She can’t broadcast those offers to her 40 suppliers by SMS because she needs to bargain with them over quality and price. Her “motto” is to help the farmers by getting them to produce select quality produce so they can sell at a higher price. She uses the internet to get information about price and demand from her local fruit association, of which she is a member. She wants a web page to market her goods, but must wait till her daughter finishes college this year so that they can really start up the business and increase her exports.

Mr Nguyen Van Thiet, Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (markd) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Cho Lac District, Ben Tre Province, Southern Vietnam

‘INFORMATION IS NOT ENOUGH, WE NEED AN ORGANIZATION’

Mr Thiet works as a small trader with local farmers buying ornamental trees and selling them to larger traders. He rarely knows any market information, rather, he sells based on his experience and has no idea what the trees are then resold for. He thinks that information is important, but “not enough”. He wants an organization that can work locally to help him and the farmers to know what is happening in the market, to forecast which trees will be in demand, to help them decide what to grow, and to help them organize and aggregate their products to sell to larger traders, (by calling them to come and collect). He thinks that price information on the internet is risky, in that the advertised price may not be accurate or may change.. and if they plant according to the price advertised, then they may be in for a big disappointment when they can’t get those prices. Price stability and a guaranteed market are key to their prosperity. He believes that 10-12% of the farmers in the Commune have mobile phones.

Mr Nguyen Huu Tam, Vietnam

noreply@blogger.com (markd) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:14:00 +0000

Coconut Trader, Ben Tre Province, South Vietnam

Based in one of South Vietnam’s poorest provinces, and isolated from the nearby Ho Chi Minh by the Mekong Delta rivers, Mr. Tam sources coconuts from three neighbouring provinces, paying on average about 5,000 Vietnamese Dong for each one ($0.30) and selling them for 5,100. His maximum capacity is about 50,000 coconuts a day. He earns on average $7/day, or about $2,250/year. Mr. Tam did a deal 2-3years back to supply the Chinese market, but their demand is too high, and he can not aggregate enough coconuts to meet that demand. Rather, he sells to other Vietnamese traders in Ho Chi Minh, or the highland provinces. They place an order, he waits for the money, and then fills their trucks with the coconuts. Every day he calls his ‘friends’ in the private trading companies to find out what the market prices are. He trusts them, and it gives him an idea of demand and how to set his prices. He thinks that public SMS-based prices from the government or other traders would not be accurate. The small traders ‘will always tell you something false’. In any case, he says, he doesn’t need the retail prices from the internet or the TV, rather, he needs the private trading prices to set his own margins. He estimates that he spends about $18/month on phone charges to access this market information and close his deals. He estimates small traders spend about $9/month on phone fees. 70% of his supply he has to call farmers, where the rest is just brought in. All farmers in Vietnam have fixed phones, and about 50% have mobiles, he claims. “If i call their mobiles, they can see it’s me calling and can avoid the call... so I prefer to call them on their fixed phone when they’re at home, and then they always answer!”.