Olam International, a food and agribusiness company is to introduce its Ghana food distribution mobile application to other African countries, including Nigeria and Cameroun.
“This is in view of the positive impact Olam Markets, Ghana’s first and only business-to-business mobile application in the food sector, has on grocery distribution in the country,” Olam International said in a statement copied to the Ghanaian Times.
It explained that Olam Markets was a component of the company’s global purpose to re-imagine agriculture and food systems by innovating sustainable growth that benefited consumers, customers, employees, partners, and the communities and environs in which it operated.
Launched on June 24, 2019 after multiple rounds of testing in Accra and other places, the statement said the application developed with the involvement of a team of young Ghanaian graduates was meant for the distributors of Olam Ghana.
“The application added an average of 50 distributors each month, and, in a little over a year, is today used by 90 per cent of distributors supplying retailers with packaged foods processed and manufactured in the country by Olam subsidiaries,” it said.
The statement said the application was the product of intensive research into distributors’ needs and it is intended to help them to select, order, purchase, and designate delivery details.
Among the other benefits of the application, the statement said it helped distributors to promptly check their account balance and statement, which previously took five days to check with the analogue system, and the convenience and order products from Olam at the comfort of their offices and manage their warehouse space.
Commenting on the application, the Country Head of Olam Ghana, Amit Agrawal said, “Olam has been committed to Ghana for over 20 years.”
He said the Olam Markets rolled out with only 16 distributors, mostly women, currently has more distributors on the application.
“The impact has been transformational for business management. It has brought convenience to distributors in delivery of their account statements, which is currently done in seconds instead of days, and the visibility they get into their orders with updates during every step of the process,” he said.
The Head of Digital, Africa and Middle East of Olam International, Sidhartha Samal, also commenting on the application said, “The goal of Olam Markets is to empower our distributors to do business faster, as well as more easily and profitably.”
Olam International Pix/samba/03-09-2020
BY TIMES REPORTER