Homecoming Revolution chats to a few experts about trends and innovations within Sub-Saharan Africa’s Supply Chain & Logistics industry.
Mohammed Akoojee, Group CEO of Imperial, “The Covid-19 pandemic has provided lessons for us that will fundamentally change
the way we live and work in the future. As clients rethink their supply chains, there will be greater demand for visibility and resilience. Providing data and technology solutions will be a key differentiator for supply chain companies.”
Martin Mutura, Supply Chain, Innovation and Commerialization Director for The Coca Cola Company: West Africa,
“We must play our part in producing and trading with the rest of the world, competitively, as peers….The future in Supply Chain will be determined by who is leveraging automation, regional sourcing, AI/ digitization/ Big data analytics, smart supply chain planning and collaboration.”
Saheed Badmus, Head of Distribution at Kimberley-Clark Nigeria, highlights the importance of not compromising customer satisfaction, even through these times of upheaval to our ways of working. Cost must always be the compromise, not customer satisfaction. “In other to win at both, route planning optimization needs to be tackled using technology. The introduction of technology will ensure it is done optimally and faster. Doing it optimally and faster will eliminate compromising on customer satisfaction as a result of delaying dispatches due to low truck fill.”
Ibnou Diaw, Regional Director, West Africa at ARC, says Africa in comparison to other places in the world faces increased inequality in access to goods. However the recent challenges the continent has faced has opened up new opportunities, particularly in the HealthTech supply chain sector. “The innovations made in the last mile distribution of health commodities since the start of the pandemic have shown distribution outsourcing opportunities that can improve the availability of essential medicines.”
Allan Bogonko, Supply Chain Head for Sokowatch East Africa says that the emphasis of improvements in the sector need to be placed on reaching the last mile consumers, where the retail experience needs to “mimic that of Amazon” and allow for the transformation of the informal retail space. This is how the continent will see the greatest positive impact in the sector. “We at Sokowatch constantly invest resources in the optimization of the last mile delivery experience for consumer products.”
Rosemary Mwaniki, Head of Procurement and Logistics at East African Breweries, highlights a key trend of delivering low cost goods through robust sourcing strategies and being able to ensure this continuity through longer term strategies with supplier partnerships.
Faye Tessendorf, Managing Director of Homecoming Revolution “We have seen increased demand for senior
talent in the supply chain management industry who have a hybrid skill-set of technical, strategy and innovation. The ability to understand technology, anticipate trends and embrace agility is a key factor in our placements.”
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Homecoming Revolution specialises in the headhunting, mapping and placing of top talent in the Supply Chain & Logistics space among other key sectors. Get in touch for all your supply chain management talent requirements.
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