Free deliveries may answer Africa’s online commerce challenge

Kihara loading a display bucket with beans at his shop in a rural remote area of Kiambu County, Kenya. Copia takes mobile-phone orders for goods ranging from kitchen appliances to tinned food and delivers them to remote parts of Kenya within about two days at no extra cost. — Photos: Bloomberg

In the three years since becoming an agent for mobile e-commerce company Copia Global Inc, Samuel Kihara has boosted revenue at his general store fivefold, opened a second shop, bought land and a truck and moved his children to private school.

"The commissions I earn as a Copia agent have been my working capital,” Kihara, 48, said as he stood in green overalls at his small shop in Kawaida, a village 23km north of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. "All this has been possible due to money from the business.”