Good news to Nigerian entrepreneurs and business community at large.
A global online portal established to promote and support growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Africa has been launched.
The portal (www.ciafricaconnect.com), known as CiAfrica Connect, will help African SMEs showcase their products and services to customers in all parts of the world and within Africa.
CiAfricaConnect.com is both a B2B (business to business), and a B2C (business to consumer) portal.
Speaking on the mission and vision of the online portal, the CEO of CiAfrica Connect, Mr. Martin Adewale Fareo, said “our aim is to improve trade opportunities among African SMEs, and between Africa and the Asia Pacific, Europe, America, South America and the Middle East.”
Elaborating more on this, Mr. Fareo expressed that CiAfrica Connect’s aim is not only to provide a benchmarking comprehensive advertising platform, but also to ensure growth and sustainability of African SMEs, through various knowledge-based services, and dealing with various aspects of business processes.
CiAfrica Connect platform, the CEO continued, “offers features and functionalities that are powerful, interactive and enable store owners to manage their individual store through an administration portal, also enabling the buyers to manage and track their orders with unrestricted access to the seller.”
Buyer’s admin portal, he said, has several features including: Manage user profile, Correspondence with sellers, Filter junk email, Refund and dispute handling, Appointment notification folder for Service sellers, Manage feedback, Manage billing and shipping information.
The Service and Product Store admin portal features and functions include the following: Account dashboard, Manage store profile, Bank details and accreditations. The store owner also can mange their Order, Messages and Manage feedbacks, Filter junk email, Manage dispute and refunds. Through self-mange admin portal, the store owners can also subscribe to various CiAfrica Connect advertisement packages and knowledge base business support.
The appointment booking function is designed to aid service store owner reach, by creating opportunity for the potential service buyers to connect with service sellers on CiAfrica Connect platform, as stated by the CEO.
Mr. Fareo said it is FREE to sign-up for an online Product and/or Service store, and access basic knowledge base for decision making. However, some services are paid, and these include: Homepage Video Advertisement, Homepage Banner Advertisement, Homepage Premium Advertiser Logo Display, Homepage Proud Partners Logo Display, About Us Page Proud Partners Logo Display, Search Result Banner Advertisement, Mobile App Advertising, Knowledgebase Business Support, Business Matching, Certificate of Authentication (COA) and Sponsorship Packages.
Martin emphasized on CiAfrica Connect corporate responsibility in Africa which includes: direct giving to non-profit groups, job training programs for the youths, disabled, or other disenfranchised groups, commitments to ensure diversity in the workforce across race, gender, and sexual orientation, as well as focus on reducing the company’s environmental footprint through more efficient supply chains, recycling, reduced energy use, and other efforts.