What it takes to construct a logistics community from scratch in West Africa

Interview with Bamba Lo
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, PAPS

Lives in: Dakar, Senegal

Bamba Lo based logistics firm PAPS after observing that whereas companies in Dakar might efficiently promote merchandise, insufficient supply infrastructure meant these items continuously failed to achieve patrons. To unravel this native supply hole, he began the corporate with two scooters and a Fb web page.

At this time, PAPS serves almost 90% of Senegal’s banking sector, strikes items throughout borders in a area the place addresses don’t at all times exist, and operates a partnership with UPS. In 2024, Lo was one of many high 20 finalists within the Africa’s Enterprise Heroes entrepreneurship competitors.

On this interview, Lo discusses the realities of constructing a logistics community from scratch.

What challenges does PAPS clear up for its purchasers?

We tried the supply choices accessible in Dakar on the time. None of them labored the best way a enterprise truly wanted them to. No monitoring, no accountability, no consistency. The consumer would wait. The bundle would arrive late, or under no circumstances. The sale was misplaced. That’s the second I understood: the issue was not promoting. The issue was the infrastructure that ought to flip a sale right into a supply. That infrastructure merely didn’t exist. And if you’re in West Africa attempting to construct an actual enterprise, that may be a basic blocker. So we determined to construct it ourselves beginning with two scooters.

Earlier than PAPS, I used to be working a name centre, promoting subscriptions and doing outbound gross sales. We have been first rate at producing curiosity. However then one thing stored occurring: prospects would say sure, they’d need the product, after which they only wouldn’t present up. Not as a result of they modified their minds. As a result of they may not get to us, and we couldn’t get to them. PAPS is the infrastructure that makes commerce work in Africa. When a enterprise must get one thing from level A to level B – whether or not that’s throughout a metropolis, throughout a rustic, or throughout a continent – we make that occur reliably, with visibility, with one level of contact. The issue we’re fixing is fragmentation. In most markets, an organization has to sew collectively 5 or 6 totally different suppliers: one for storage, one for last-mile supply, one for customs, one other for cross-border freight. Each is a separate contract, a separate bill, a separate telephone name when one thing goes mistaken. And when issues do go mistaken – and in logistics, they’ll – nobody takes duty. We’ve got changed all of that with one built-in stack: storage, choose and pack, last-mile, intercity freight, cross-border, customs. One platform – MyPaps – so purchasers have visibility throughout the whole lot. One staff they name. One companion accountable for the outcome. That’s PAPS.

What have been the preliminary hurdles you confronted after launching PAPS in Dakar?

The early days have been humbling in the very best manner. We began with two scooters and a Fb web page. My co-founders and I have been doing deliveries ourselves – bodily on the street, studying the town, studying what might go mistaken.

The primary problem was probably the most primary one: addresses. In Dakar, as in most West African cities, formal addresses barely exist. Your supply instruction could be: “third home previous the massive mango tree on the left.” That isn’t a joke – that’s the fact. So earlier than we might construct any sort of tech-enabled logistics, we needed to clear up a human, cultural, geographic downside first.

The second problem was belief – each from purchasers and from the Papsers, our unbiased supply riders. Companies didn’t imagine we may very well be constant. Papsers didn’t know whether or not we might pay pretty. We needed to earn the whole lot, daily, by execution. There have been no shortcuts. However these early constraints have been instructive. They pressured us to construct for the precise actuality of our market – not for some idealised model of it. That’s nonetheless how we function right now.

Why did you resolve to decide to fixing this particular downside?

I believe folks underestimate logistics as a result of they don’t see it. When it really works, it’s invisible. You order one thing, it arrives. You don’t take into consideration the chain that made that occur. However when it doesn’t work, it prices everybody – the enterprise loses a consumer, the consumer loses belief in the entire ecosystem, and commerce slows down. What made me imagine this was price the whole lot? The scale of the hole. In West Africa, an estimated 80-90% of retail nonetheless occurs informally – partially as a result of the infrastructure to help formal commerce is lacking. E-commerce can’t scale if supply is unreliable. A financial institution can’t distribute playing cards if last-mile execution fails. A pharmaceutical firm can’t guarantee drugs reaches sufferers within the rural areas with no cold-chain-capable companion. Logistics isn’t glamorous. However it’s the basis of the whole lot. In case you repair the infrastructure, you unlock commerce. You unlock development. You unlock inclusion. That isn’t a small guess – that is likely one of the highest-leverage issues you’ll be able to work on on this area.

Clarify the primary turning level for the corporate.

There have been a couple of, however a very powerful one was the choice to cease being a supply firm and begin constructing infrastructure. In our early years, we have been excellent at last-mile. However as we labored extra carefully with bigger companies, we noticed that their logistics downside didn’t begin at supply – it began at storage, at planning, at customs, at cross-border. They wanted somebody to personal the entire chain, not simply the ultimate kilometre. So we made a deliberate option to construct upwards and outwards: including warehousing, including worldwide freight, including a proprietary tech platform. It price us extra, it was tougher, it slowed some issues down. However it’s what remodeled PAPS from an area courier into an actual logistics infrastructure firm.

The second turning level was our partnership with UPS. That gave us credibility at a world stage, entry to greater than 220 nations for our purchasers, and a sign to the market that PAPS operates at a distinct tier. It modified how conversations began.

Spotlight among the foremost difficulties of increasing your community throughout borders.

The toughest half is that there isn’t any copy-paste. What works in Dakar doesn’t essentially work in Abidjan. What works in Abidjan doesn’t routinely work in Cotonou or Luanda. Every market has totally different regulatory frameworks, totally different infrastructure high quality, totally different cost behaviours, totally different consumer expectations. The error quite a lot of firms make is to increase earlier than they’ve really understood the brand new market. They export their mannequin and marvel why it doesn’t land. We’ve got tried to withstand that temptation – to reach with humility, construct native partnerships, perceive the precise constraints earlier than we scale. What I’ve discovered is that the basics switch, however the execution needs to be native. The model values, the tech stack, the requirements – these are constant. However the way you recruit Papsers in Ouagadougou, the way you deal with customs in Cotonou, the way you construct belief with an enterprise consumer in Abidjan – that requires native intelligence.

The place does know-how have the best operational affect on the enterprise?

“Digitising logistics” is a type of phrases that may imply the whole lot and nothing. For us, know-how has to unravel actual operational issues – or it’s noise. In follow, the most important affect is in three areas.

First, visibility: our purchasers can see in actual time, by MyPaps, the place their shipments are, what’s of their warehouse, what their efficiency metrics appear to be. Earlier than PAPS, they have been calling drivers on WhatsApp. That isn’t a system – that’s improvisation.

Second, dispatching. PapsOps, our inside operations software, permits us to optimise routes, assign missions, and handle our fleet in a manner that will be unattainable manually at our present scale. We will plan dozens of runs concurrently, and adapt in actual time when one thing adjustments.

Third, the Papser App – our platform for unbiased Papsers. It offers them readability: what mission, what route, what cost. That readability drives efficiency. A Papser who is aware of precisely what he’s doing and what he earns is a Papser who delivers effectively.

Logistics includes many shifting elements – transporters, customs, purchasers. How do you construct belief in a system the place so many issues can go mistaken?

You construct belief by not pretending that issues won’t go mistaken. They are going to. A bundle will probably be delayed. There will probably be a customs problem. A consumer could have an pressing request at 9pm. The query is: what occurs when one thing goes mistaken? For us, belief is constructed by two issues: transparency and possession. Transparency means the consumer isn’t at midnight. MyPaps offers them visibility. If there’s a delay, they learn about it earlier than they must name us. And after they do name, they attain an actual staff that has context on their operations. Possession implies that when one thing goes mistaken, PAPS owns it. We don’t blame the transporter. We don’t inform the consumer to kind it out with customs. We’re the only level of accountability. That may be a dedication we take severely – and it’s also what separates us from a market mannequin the place nobody is really accountable. Belief in logistics isn’t constructed with advertising and marketing. It’s constructed supply by supply, cargo by cargo, over time. We’ve got purchasers who’ve been with us since 2017. That’s the actual proof.

Are you able to share an actual instance of how PAPS has modified issues for one among your purchasers?

I take into consideration one among our banking purchasers – right now we work with almost 90% of the banking sector in Senegal. After we first engaged with banks, their card and doc distribution was an actual downside: delicate supplies delivered by casual couriers, no monitoring, no proof of supply, vital safety threat. After implementing PAPS, that they had a devoted staff, documented proof of supply, SLA commitments, and a dashboard to watch efficiency by department. The operational threat went down considerably.

Extra broadly, I’ve seen what dependable logistics does for e-commerce companies. When supply works, returns go down, opinions go up, repeat purchases enhance. When it doesn’t, one dangerous expertise can destroy a model’s fame. The primary-attempt supply charge isn’t a logistics metric – it’s a enterprise metric.

What has been probably the most tough a part of constructing PAPS?

The early years of increasing outdoors Senegal have been tougher than we anticipated. When you have got constructed one thing that works effectively in a single market, there’s a pure confidence that transfers. However that confidence could make you much less cautious, much less affected person – and growth punishes impatience. We had moments the place we moved too quick, the place the operational infrastructure was not able to help what we had promised purchasers. The place we underestimated the complexity of a brand new regulatory surroundings or the time wanted to construct the correct native staff. What that taught us – and what shapes how we function right now – is that excellence in a single market needs to be earned once more in each new market. We now go into growth with extra construction: correct due diligence, a phased strategy, native partnerships constructed earlier than the industrial launch. We’re extra affected person. Sustainable development is slower – however it’s the solely sort that lasts.

What are among the enterprise classes you have got discovered whereas constructing the corporate?

That the infrastructure downside comes earlier than the know-how downside. I see quite a lot of founders rush to construct apps, to digitise, to automate – earlier than the essential operational infrastructure is working reliably. Know-how amplifies what you have got already constructed. If the basics usually are not strong, tech will simply make your failures quicker and extra seen.

The second factor: don’t underestimate the price of belief. In markets the place formal programs are weak, relationships and fame are the actual infrastructure. Your first 50 purchasers will resolve your subsequent 500. The way you deal with an issue at 11pm on a Friday will probably be talked about. Constructing a logistics firm in Africa is partly a relationship enterprise – and you can’t outsource that.

And the third, which I imagine deeply: the market is greater than anybody thinks. The casual economic system isn’t the enemy – it’s the addressable market. Each casual commerce circulate that formalises is a chance. PAPS exists to be the infrastructure that makes that formalisation potential.

What does success appear to be to you?

For PAPS particularly: success appears to be like like being the logistics layer that any critical enterprise in West Africa – and finally throughout the continent – trusts as default. Not as a result of we’re the one choice, however as a result of we’re probably the most dependable, probably the most built-in, probably the most linked to the worldwide community. An organization mustn’t have to consider logistics. They need to take into consideration their product, their purchasers, their development – and belief PAPS to deal with the remaining.

At a bigger scale, success for African commerce appears to be like just like the removing of the infrastructure tax that each enterprise at present pays. At this time, logistics friction is a hidden price that slows development, reduces competitiveness, and retains companies smaller than they need to be. When that friction goes down, commerce accelerates. When commerce accelerates, economies develop. When economies develop, alternatives multiply. We’re not there but. However I imagine this era of African infrastructure builders – in logistics, in fintech, in power – is laying a basis that can change what is feasible on this continent. PAPS desires to be a vital a part of that basis. That’s what retains us going.

This text is an tailored model of a chunk initially printed by Africa’s Enterprise Heroes.