It's expensive to put food on the African table

Welcome to Tech Safari!

Your tour guide on African Tech 🧭

Hello to the new folks who have joined the Safari since the last edition.

If you haven't subscribed, join 18,726 smart folks curious about Tech in Africa.

Hey, and welcome to this edition of Tech Safari 👋🏽

Tomorrow, I’m hosting an AMA with my good friend Joe Kinvi, formerly at Stripe and Paystack, and the co-founder of HoaQ.

We’re talking about how to build a thriving African startup ecosystem, so register here to save your spot.

Alright, let’s get into it.

It’s 8:00 pm in Nairobi, Kenya.

In Buruburu — a middle-income neighbourhood — a family of five comes together for dinner: a meal of ugali, greens, and beef stew.

Ugali is a staple Kenyan dish made from maize flour and boiling water.

It's easy to prepare. It’s deeply satisfying. And it used to be a wallet-friendly option for this family.

But lately, their weekly supermarket runs are costing a lot more.

Just three years ago, a 2kg packet of maize flour cost around $0.70 (100 shillings).

But now, it costs up to $1.40 (200 shillings), depending on the brand and where you shop.

And it’s not just maize flour.

Kenya is currently caught in a cost-of-living crisis.

Low-income families are shelling out more than half of their paychecks just to put food on the table.

It’s a harsh reality.

And it’s a reality all across Africa.

Families are feeling the pinch, because:

It costs to put food on the African table

In the US, UK, and Canada, food takes up about 6.4%, 8.2%, and 9.8% of household budgets.

But in Sub-Saharan Africa, food takes up 40% of individual spending.

Take Nigeria, for example, where families are coughing up 59% of their earnings just to put food on the table.

That’s the highest anywhere in the world. And sadly, it's not getting much better.

Jollof — a Nigerian staple whose main ingredient is rice — is getting more expensive.

Since last September, Nigerians have been paying 61% more for rice.

Ingredients like vegetable oil, onions, and chicken have also seen their prices soar over the past year.

It’s a food crisis.

And the most critical question to ask is:

Why is it so expensive to eat in Africa?

Food and energy prices are skyrocketing everywhere, causing inflation to surge worldwide.

But here’s why Africa is feeling the pinch extra hard:

1) Lower Disposable Incomes

Most of the world's poorest people live in Africa.

About 34% of the continent gets by on just $1.90 per day, while only 20% can afford $5.50 a day.

And when you earn that little, most of your income goes to the things you can't live without.

Like food.

2) Africa imports its food

At least 82% of staple foods in Africa are sourced outside of the continent.

Africa’s dependence on food imports puts its food security at the mercy of global markets.

And when things like conflicts mess up trading routes or currencies take a nosedive, import costs shoot up.

These costs catch up with manufacturers and drive the cost of food higher.

3) Complex Supply Chains

Imported staple foods like wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet go on quite the journey before they get to the dinner table.

Big manufacturers sell to distributors.

Who sell to wholesalers.

Who sell to retailers.

Who sell to consumers.

And then (finally), it gets to the dinner table.

These logistics costs pile up - and so does the cost of food.

And this founder saw Africa’s food crisis firsthand

In 2014, Cathy Chepkemboi was working in Sales and Marketing at Unilever across Kenya.

As her role expanded, she ended up managing a distribution center for Unilever’s products in Tala, a remote Kenyan town.

While on the job, Cathy noticed how long the supply chain stretched from Unilever to the customer, and that the logistics costs were passed down to the customer.

But the problem wasn’t just for customers.

From a marketing lens, Cathy also noticed how hard it was for Unilever to connect directly with customers.

Unilever's sales flowed through supermarkets and small shops called dukas.

And promoting through these channels didn’t come cheap.

For supermarkets, you’re spending a lot of money to get prime spots on aisles.

Or you're hiring in-store brand promoters to woo customers to your brands.

And with dukas, you’re sending out posters with your messaging and hiring brand ambassadors to plaster them everywhere.

An expensive spray and pray.

That’s when Cathy asked:

What if customers could buy directly from brands, without the logistical hassle?

And even better - what if brands could push discounts directly to customers?

That’s how Cathy started Tushop

Tushop means ‘to shop together.’

Using the app, Tushop’s tens of thousands of customers can come together and buy from over 800 products in groups to benefit from discounts. 

Group-buys — or “pamojas” — allow Tushop to aggregate products and pool deliveries, reducing logistics and inventory costs. 

Once a brand lists its products for purchase as a pamoja, a shopper can ‘launch’ a pamoja for the discounted item.

If enough fellow shoppers join the group, everyone enjoys the discount. 

Tushop then delivers to central pickup points for shoppers, which lowers the cost of logistics.

The outcome?

A 5% to 50% discount on the cost of goods: a game changer for the average African.

For example, Tushop has sold over 32 million eggs by aggregating demand and working directly with farmers – leading to lower prices.

And this benefits brands too.

Customers inviting their friends to buy goods and get a discount is one of the most powerful forms of marketing: referrals.

Instead of blowing hundreds of thousands on posters and in-store sales reps, brands could get a cheaper and data-driven return on investment.

But after two years of building Tushop, the team realised something else: food isn’t just expensive in terms of cost.

Food also costs a lot of time

And time is money.

The average middle-income Kenyan spends about 4-6 hours a week shopping - and this includes commuting, navigating the aisles, and waiting in line at the cashier.

For some buyers, it means the time going to the soko (open-air market) and haggling with vendors.

This adds up to about 12 days a year - just spent shopping.

The team at Tushop began to wonder:

Why do we still need to go to the soko?

Why do we need to wait in line at the supermarket?

Why don’t we automate this experience and save shoppers some of those 12 days?

So Tushop built Jipange

When you go shopping, there are fairly predictable things that you need to buy.

Jipange has automated the shopping process so those goods that you buy every weekend can get to your doorstep before you run out.

It’s the first time a Kenyan can automate their grocery shopping - and spend those twelve days on the stuff that really matters.

Food in Africa is expensive - in both price and time.

Tushop is helping shoppers across Africa save money and time - through their products Pamoja and Jipange.

As Cathy tells us:

“Tushop exists to connect customers to brands to help them save money and free up time for the things that matter. If the average African can save just 10% of food and cut down on time spent shopping, we’ll have been successful!”

Let us know what you think of Africa’s food situation and Tushop here.

PS. If you’re in Kenya, you can try out Jipange and save time on shopping here: https://bit.ly/m/tushop.

And that's a wrap!

Did we miss anything? Or just want to say hey? I'd love to hear from you! You can

• 💸 Invest with the Tech Safari Syndicate

• 🐦 Find me on Twitter

• 💬 Holler on Linkedin

• 💌 Reply to this email

• 🚀 Partner with Tech Safari

• 👨🏾‍💻 Hire with Tech Safari Talent

And if you don't already, make sure to sign up to get this in your inbox next week

And remember - it just takes just five referrals to join our WhatsApp community 👇🏾

Catch you soon!