Retzam Danladi Tarle is a Plateau State indigene and a 400 level student of Information Technology Department, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State. He is also a software engineer who has built an online marketing app for tertiary institutions across the country. In this interview, he explained how the app operates.
How does the App, ‘iwansell’ operate?
It is commonly acknowledged that digital marketing has significantly revolutionized transaction of goods and services across the globe. This is mainly achieved through online stores like Amazon, Jumia, Ali Baba Express, OLX and e-Bay; or through shared digital economies like UBER, OPAY, and Air B&B. However, these platforms also have their lapses in that it sometimes takes days, weeks or even months to get certain goods delivered and there is hardly any room for price negotiations. That’s aside the fact that the flow of goods and services is most times unidirectional. It is against this backdrop that I built ‘iwansell.com.’
Why is it different from others?
The App has the semblance of a typical African market where nearly everyone is a buyer and nearly everyone is a seller in the same market. Now let’s refresh ourselves with some features of typical African markets. The markets are locally specific. Secondly, most buyers purchase goods with money acquired from their own sales. For instance, a woman could come to the market with a goat to sell and upon selling she would proceed to buy vegetables and foodstuff for her domestic needs. That’s a little advancement over trade by barter. So in a sense, almost every buyer is a seller, and that’s how the app is. Thirdly, an important feature of a Nigerian market is price negotiation. Usually, the buyer negotiates the price of goods according to his financial strength; but that can only be done when he has a direct interaction with the seller, and our app provides such opportunity.
What business community does the App target?
This App is specially tailored to meet the needs of campuses or academic communities. It will also enable enterprising students to sell their wares without the burden of hawking to a broad category of people which may consist of few buyers. Also, both students and staff who are overwhelmed by the rigours of academics work and research can maximise their time by reducing the time and the risk of dashing to the city to get goods or services that are now at their doorsteps instead. Transactions can be made between student-student, student-staff, staff-staff, student-campus community residents, community residents-student etc.
Is there any campus that the App is being used?
Yes. Iwansell is currently trending in University of Jos, University of Lagos, University of Abuja Federal University of Technology, Minna, campuses. We are however expanding to others. Iwansell can be downloaded from google and apple stores respectively.
What is your future projection with the App?
My projection is that there should be a minimum of 1000 e-shops on each campus of the 174 Universities, 112 Polytechnics and 152 Colleges of Education across the country. This opportunity is also open to big businesses that want to have a presence in the student community.
It is worth mentioning also that our robust platform which is built with the best and latest technology can be accessed across all devices.
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