Dr. Bello Galadanchi is a young journalist, filmmaker, lecturer, writer, poet, entrepreneur and food enthusiast.
The Kano State entrepreneur raised in Jos, studied Biomedical Engineering at Pennsylvania State University.
He had worked as a journalist with VOA, and is the cofounder of Radiyon Talaka, an online Hausa news platform. In this interview, he shared his thoughts on why he founded Kasuwar Bello, the first Hausa e-commerce platform.
What inspired you to create this platform?
I thought of creating a payment platform online and along the way I thought why not an ecommerce website for Arewa. And that was how ‘Kasuwar Bello’ was born.
It is easier to maintain an e-commerce business than one with a physical store based on overhead costs and it is easily accessible all over the country.
An example would be now during the corona virus pandemic. With the lockdown, you could still get goods you want. It is very convenient. We are able to communicate and provide information about our goods.
What is unique about e-commerce and packaging?
As the world moves towards the use of cell phones for almost everything, e-commerce is going to be a new normal in a few years to come. Package delivery is the logistical blood of e-commerce, and with many new entrepreneurs jumping in the new boom of buying and selling, we decided to open up Kasuwar Bello’s package delivery service called “KB Express” to the public.
What problems are you trying to solve?
I want to make it easy for people in Arewa to be able to support themselves and attain financial independence without necessarily having a college degree or having a great deal of money. Just have that drive and a strong plan to succeed.
How do you market your company?
Word of mouth is the key, because we provide a unique and exceptional service that no one is providing. We also execute campaigns via social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
It’s been about five years now, starting with my language school called BK Education, then transitioned to Kasuwar Bello and now we also have KB Express and Radiyon Talaka.
What was your mission when you started?
When I first started, it was to help married women to be financially independent. Kasuwar Bello was started so they can have something to fall back on and this boosts self-morale as well.
What challenges do you face?
Well, it all boils down to having people understand the difference between catching fish and giving it to them and teaching them how to catch the fish. It’s easy to just give out capital or goods to people to sell and make a profit, but as we’ve seen for decades, most of these folks still end up poor and unemployed.
How many jobs has your company provided?
We have directly employed more than 60 individuals across more than a dozen states in Nigeria over the past three years, and indirectly supported more than 2,000 people running their small businesses.
What message do you have for the youth?
The most important thing is to have self-worth and not be discouraged. The secret to life is to have no fear. There should be that ambition and passion to succeed but not being perfect in some things or not achieving some things shouldn’t determine your self-worth. Especially with social media around these days we get carried away with the successes of others which make us feel like we aren’t doing enough or we are useless.
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