Kobo360 (IFC-41760)

Countries
  • Nigeria
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Proposed
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
B
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Oct 13, 2018
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
KOBO360 INC
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Transport
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 3.00 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ IFC website

Updated in EWS Jan 14, 2019

Disclosed by Bank Sep 11, 2018

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Contact the EWS Team

Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

IFC is considering an equity investment of upto US$ 3 million in Kobo360 Inc (“Kobo”). Kobo is a long-haul e-logistics B2B platform utilizing an “Uber for trucks” model to develop a marketplace matching cargo owners with long-haul freight needs and truck owners who are able to service them. Through its internally-developed digital platform, Kobo is disrupting the transportation and logistics market in Nigeria offering a strong value proposition to key stakeholders in the sector including cargo owners, transporters (and drivers) and cargo recipients. Kobo optimally matches demand and supply of trucks, providing predictability, reliability, price transparency, and increased utilization of otherwise idle assets in the highly fragmented trucking market in Nigeria. Given the strong population growth expected (Nigeria will be the third largest country in the world by 2050), logistics will become even more important to support booming sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, commodities, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), etc.

People Affected By This Project
People Affected By This Project refers to the communities of people likely to be affected positively or negatively by a project.

This Project will result in positive outcomes for the relevant parties in the logistics sector in Nigeria (cargo owners and truck owners/drivers) and the market at large.

For cargo owners, Kobo's platform offers greater access to logistics services through an aggregated platform thereby addressing capacity challenges in fulfilling market demand. By leveraging technology and eliminating middle-men/brokers, Kobo is able to offer lower prices to cargo owners in a market where logistics costs are 1.4-2.8x higher than in the US. In addition, Kobo offers reliability of delivery to cargo owners through real-time tracking of trucks and goods in transit insurance hence ensuring full traceability of goods.

For truck owners and drivers, Kobo offers increased capacity utilization through route optimization and return logistics hence higher incomes for drivers as well as faster payment cycles.

As the company scales and aggregates more drivers and cargo owners onto the platform, Kobo will bring more price transparency and efficiency to the broader sector.

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.
Private Actor 1 Private Actor 1 Role Private Actor 1 Sector Relation Private Actor 2 Private Actor 2 Role Private Actor 2 Sector
- - - - Kobo360 Inc Client -

Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Kobo360 Inc
Obiora Ozor
Chief Executive Officer/Co-Founder
0818 678 0000
info@kobo360.com
22, Ikorodu Road, Jibowu Yaba, Lagos
https://kobo360.com/Info

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF IFC

The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who believe they are likely to be, or have been, adversely affected by an IFC or MIGA- financed project. If you submit a complaint to the CAO, they may assist you in resolving a dispute with the company and/or investigate to assess whether the IFC is following its own policies and procedures for preventing harm to people or the environment. If you want to submit a complaint electronically, you can email the CAO at CAO@worldbankgroup.org. You can learn more about the CAO and how to file a complaint at http://www.cao-ombudsman.org/

How it works

How it works