Ajayi Kehinde Johnson and Samuel Oluwatoyin found their entrepreneurial spark while growing food in their backyards. Over time, they began sourcing and selling products from all over Nigeria. In 2012, international interest in their offerings led them to found OgoLord International Limited, a Lagos-based business that sources and sells everything from smoked fish and cashew nuts to wood and charcoal.
In 2017, OgoLord added the WhatsApp Business app to its communication system to help coordinate operations across its vast supply chain and better connect with customers across Africa and as far away as Vietnam, Spain, and the United States. Ajayi says the quick replies and automated messages features help his business transcend time zones.
“We work from 8AM through 6PM, but we get requests, even at odd hours. WhatsApp Business has made our operations look like a 24-hour service,” explains Ajayi.
OgoLord's customers also like this immediacy.
A business owner who runs an import and export business in Sialkot, Pakistan, and has sourced cow horns from OgoLord for four years says, “We communicate via WhatsApp. OgoLord sends me product pictures, and this is helpful for moving business forward.”
With a reliable communication tool in place, Ajayi and Samuel can focus on marketing Nigeria's best offerings to the world. The WhatsApp Business app is helping them to connect with a marketplace full of opportunities to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.