By Prince Osuagwu
The construction materials industry is one of Nigeria’s largest sectors, demonstrating consistent high growth.
But despite the industry’s attractiveness, the sector, in three major ways, suffers several inefficiencies in Nigeria and most African markets. One is in fragmented category markets, as construction project managers traditionally spend significant time and effort managing multiple procurement conversations across different platforms for each item category. For instance, they physically tour materials markets before discovering right product at suitable quality and price levels.
Another is the issue of multiple layers of middle-men or redundant layers of middle-men who drive price inflation and absorb manufacturers’ discounts or regional promotional efforts.
Furthermore, lack of access to credit creates inefficiency, a situation where resellers and buyers have limited access to trade-credit facilities, making it difficult to cope with rising product prices and meeting increasing product demands.
However, since launch, Africa’s frontline building materials marketplace, CinderBuild, appears to have conquered these barriers with technology adoption.
CinderBuild is the digital one-stop-shop for all bulk materials procurement, sourced directly from major manufacturers and licensed dealers. It was incorporated in Delaware and backed by leading US and European VCs. CinderBuild team comprises globally proven business professionals, including ex-McKinsey consultants, Harvard Business Review Professors, and e-Commerce leaders.
The marketplace links last mile resellers, construction managers and export markets. Resellers and project contractors make single-point procurement directly through the digital platform or by walking into any of the 1500+ e-stores opening across the country.
The organization uses key value propositions like Speed, Convenience, Price Discovery, Discount Offers, Trade Credits and Improved Sales to smash the bottlenecks created by fragmented market categories, multiple layers of middlemen and lack of access to finance.
According to the CEO of CinderBuild, Paul Adeyoyin ”what we have done to transform the rather legacy market, involves the use of technology to transform a rather fragmented sector into a single digital market square. For instance, a customer who needs to procure five items including Cement, Iron rods, Aggregates(Sand & Gravel), Floor Tiles and Electric sockets – doesn’t need to spend the whole week roaming different stores and managing suppliers to ensure timely delivery. Rather, through the cinderBuild platform www.cinderbuild.com, such customer can instantly confirm prices and place orders for items needed, with orders getting delivered to site within 24 hours.
“It is also pertinent to mention that one of the things our customers have come to appreciate the most is credit access offered to trade partners after we have enough data on their transactions”, he added.
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