Efritin, an online classifieds marketplace, owned by Salside Technologies, penetrated the Nigerian market in 2015 and debuted with a bang!
The word ‘bang’ has been carefully chosen here. This is because Efritin meant businesses when it began operations in Nigeria and was determined to make things work.
Massive Work Begins
Efritin began very serious campaign to overtake giant e-commerce sites like Jumia and Konga immediately it launched in Nigeria. The company began mass hiring of persons and flashed its many advertorial contents across newspapers and TV screens right in the faces of Nigerians.
The company made sure it took advantage of some factors such as Nigeria’s large population, the country’s promising, an emerging economy as well as its rapidly increasing internet usage to solidify its place in the country’s e-commerce market. Knowing how some Nigerians can easily fall for persuasions, the company put itself up for everyone to see via their commercials and adverts.
The company released several videos on YouTube announcing its presence. In a bid to grab even more attention, its promoters made many hilarious videos that told of how to use the platform. This worked, apparently. Efritin was on virtually every lip around Nigeria. In no time the staff strength had risen to 100 and then 200.
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Massive Progress
Efritin debuted at a time when consumerism was really becoming increasingly pronounced in Nigeria. Since there was a serious need for more people trying to exchange goods and services to connect with each other, the business took off with serious intensity especially because of the fiery promotions it carried out on different platforms.
The plan worked well. Just 3 weeks after launching in Nigeria, the company announced that it had hit as many as 128,000 listings. That was incredible. However, at the time, skeptical Nigerians didn’t know if they should believe the announcement or just consider it an unnecessary hype by the company. That notwithstanding, Nigerians thronged Efritin. This was mainly because of the image of trust and believably the company tried to put before the people.
For instance, Efritin made its many users believe they cannot be scammed on the site. The company took verification of ads very seriously. According to Zakari Hersi, the Head of Efritin.com in Nigeria, the company does “the verification of the ads in 48 hours before it goes live”. Every ad posted is strongly verified by a technical team working at the back-end.
In fact, a team is sure to call first time sellers within those 48 hours to verify certain information before they can be allowed to function. This went a long way in scaring away scammers posing as real customers to cheat people out of their money.
However, it should be noted that major classified sites in Nigeria also went through the same process of moderating their listings before they went live. What made Efritin a little different was the intense rigor it applied to the process.
Efritin also went on to arguably become the first Nigerian free classified ad platform to offer delivery service, sparking a renewed interest on the platform.
Despite all these, the company could not hold out for too long.
Efritin Bows Out
Only 16 months after it stormed Nigeria, stunning the citizens and ‘laying claim to everything,’ Efritin packed out of the country leaving many employees behind.
Many Nigerians expressed serious shock at the news, which trended online for some time. No one expected that the company would stop operations and simply just move out like that after just a short time in business.
So, what could have gone wrong for a company so vibrant and so sure? Let’s take a look at some of the problems faced.
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– High Cost Of Data
Nils Hammar, the CEO of Saltside, owners of Efritin, tried to explain what happened. According to him, the high cost of data in Nigeria was a major issue.
Speaking with ITWebAfrica on the exit of Efritin from Nigeria, Nils Hammar said: “Like I said earlier, data cost is too high and limits the growth potential of the market. if you look at the size of Nigeria and the online activities, there is a big discrepancies. Before e-commerce and classified ad sites will start recouping return in investments (RoI) there has to be drastic reduction in cost of data,” the Saltside Technologies boss said.
Apparently, Hammar was saying that the high cost of data slowed down investments in Africa’s biggest nation, or more properly put the world’s most populated black nation.
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– Economic Recession
Hammar was essentially revealing the company’s stark fears that the economic recession looking people in the face in Nigeria at the time may continue and end up crippling everything he has set up. Leaving was a better option than staying.
Was that all? Has Hammar said it all? Well, apparently not!
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– Court Cases
Investigation showed that Efritin was alleged to be involved in as many as 10 court cases in Nigeria. The court cases were said to be so huge they were going to cost the company up to N20million in fees among other things. This is one major reason, according to analysts, why the company made the decision to close the office in Nigeria.
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– Hamar’s Explanation
Hammar did agree that there court cases but went on to explain that he was not leaving Nigeria because of the legal tussles. According to him “I can’t comment on specific legal cases involving Efritin operations in Nigeria, especially, on whether there are true or not. But I can tell you that has nothing to do with our decision to leave Nigeria. It has zero impact on the decision. This decision is something we deliberated on for a very long time; tried different approaches to see if we can find a better path forward considering the economic challenges- the data cost”.
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– Mismanagement Of Funds
One other reason the initially vibrant Efritin folded up was the allegation of mismanagement of funds. There have been allegations of gross mismanagement of funds by the high-ranking members of the Efritin board.
In fact, in November 2016, it was widely reported that Uche Ajene, the ex-marketing manager of Efritin, who is well known in the online retail space, had accused Zakaria Hersi, a Somalian national and former MD of Efritin, of theft. Ajene accused Hersi of, in fact, stealing thousands of dollars.
According to Ajene, Hersei did not stop at stealing money, he also turned a blind eye to the internal mismanagement which was completely wrecking the company.
Also, some senior members of Efritin management spoke on the matter. Pleading anonymity, they said that Hersi’s activities were what brought troubles for the company.
Too Much In, Too Little Out
It is clear that Efritin had been frustrated out of Nigeria. Apparently, the plan was to bring something new to the table in the hugely populated country and revolutionize the market but the plans could not be sustained.
They had put in so much work; money and effort in attracting the audience, but they felt they were getting too little in return. The numbers were not adding up and the plan was ruined. The only other thing to do was leave.
