The app making 'Made in Togo' local products more accessible

Abide Balouki is the promoter of Abi Food, a store specialized in the sale of local products. In the last few months, she has seen her clientele increase and her turnover increase as well. Previously, Abide had difficulty selling her products like most entrepreneurs in Togo. 

This increase is due to her decision to register her store on DuSa, a search platform for selling local products. "The sale of local products is not really well appreciated by the Togolese population. But we can say that this is starting to change. The fact of having more customers already brings more turnover" Balouki said.

The low interest for Made in Togo products is partly due to the low accessibility of products in the markets. As a palliative, Dodji Tchalla, a young Togolese digital entrepreneur, developed DuSa, an application that allows consumers to search for local products sales outlets near their home area. 

Today, thanks to his platform, more than 1,000 products have already been listed and a total of more than 400 local product sales outlets registered. DuSa also offers customers a framework for interaction with product promoters and information such as prices and availability of items.

"I'm going to say 80% is satisfaction with the users of the app. At the beginning, there was a lot of reluctance because it was first a new tool for accessibility to local products. Today, there is much more enthusiasm" Tchalla told Africanews correspondent.

This digital solution gives hope to entrepreneurs of the made in Togo and also offers a digital showcase for local products. "The application has allowed me to have an easy access thanks to the sales points. Currently, there is even a way to find a point of sale that is very close to us" says Kpatcha Akaba a user of the Dusa app.

Steven MIDJOLA reporting from Lomé for Africanews says beyond being an optimized search tool for the points of sale of local products, the DuSa application also wants to serve as a platform providing financial institutions and support structures with reliable statistics to validate the financing portfolio of these entrepreneurs.