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OSHAMART: The 21st Century market in your pocket

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Ryan Lilly  never knew he would have followers when he said “ Make something people want and sell that, or be someone people need and sell you.  Ugochukwu Okoye, a graduate of the University of Nigeria Nsukka is a young entrepreneur trailing that path.

He is the creative hand behind OSHAMART. A virtual market  where people buy and sell on the digital space.

While narrating his story, he had said
"For a first time visitor to one of the countless markets in Onitsha, navigating through the maze of shops and ubiquitous ' middle-men' in search of the perferred products, with the right quality and at the right price is a herculean task. My case was no different in 2012 when I first visited Onitsha Main Market.



My committee and I were tasked with the the responsiblity of producing customised tee shirts for the Catholic Students' body in which I was a student leader. We went there  to purchase dozens of quality tee shirts for the production, in company of a friend of mine, who has spent his entire life in Onitsha. We arrived Onitsha in time and began what turned out to be an odyssey. It was unpleasant to say the least.



In summary, we succeeded in buying five dozens of shirt after spending 2hrs going round the market, before finally locating a shop with the brand and colour and quantity of tee shirt we wanted. Asking questions compounded our problems because every trader seem to have what we wanted - the popular line was " Ọga I don't have this particular colour here, but  sit lemme get samples from my other shop". After waiting countless minutes he comes back bringing  nonsense and then "Oga na the same company wey produce this one produce that one wey you dey find"

Perhaps that encounter was not enough to make him have his mind made up. He crossed path with his tormenting vision yet again. He says

"Again, in 2015, on my way journey back to Warri, my place of NYSC primary assignment, a young lady bemoaned her constant travails each time she visits Onitsha for her monthly business trip. She spends the whole day achieve less than her expectations. Moving from one shop to another in search of desired products and not finding them in the right quantity or budgeted price made things a bit difficult for her. Then I recalled my own experience three years earlier.

This got me thinking. How about developing a platform where these small business can set up online stores for their business? There, they upload pictures and prices of available products so that prospective customers can surf the platform, view available offers, prepare a market list from available offers, contact the store owners to mark pre-order then proceed to the market to conclude the transaction and take delivery of goods or services?

I then shared this idea with my University roommate, who while in school was so obsessed with programming that he became one self-taught computer whiz I have much respect for.

I went on to develop the the website, and we christened it  "Oshamart" which is a portmanteau of "Osha" and "Mart", a colloquial rendition of Onitsha Market. Though founded in Ọnitsha, our services are not limited by geographical space."



Osha Mart understands that the world is going digital and this is what they do.

To connect businesses with prospective customers whilst provide customers with real-time market information.

To achieve this, we have developed a cost-effective digital marketing platform for all businesses, which offers customers with a wide range of merchandise at competitive prices.

So if you are looking for where to sell your products and services.

You now know the way to the market!



Contact Osha Mart on:

www.oshamart.com

 info@oshamart.com

Tel: +2349059982111

Twitter @OshamartNG






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