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Inno8tiv Talks To Dziffa Ametam; Founder and CEO of Dziffa.com; E-commerce For Africans By Africans

by Milicent Atieno
Inno8tiv Talk To Dziffa Ametam Founder And CEO of Dziffa.com; E-commerce For Africans By Africans

Dziffa.com is an online market place where you can buy products made by entrepreneurs and artisans from the African continent meant for the African consumers. If you pay attention to the e-commerce platform, you will begin to realize just how much China has a grip on the African consumer market. Most of the products being consumed in most African countries are either made in China, or produced in Africa, refined in China then sold to Africa.

One entrepreneur has taken it upon herself to change this economic arrangement. Dziffa Ametam founded Dziffa.com, an online market place where you can buy and sell goods for Africans by Africans. Specifically, people who would like to buy any Ghanaian products; from facial lotions to bicycles.Inno8tiv Talk To Dziffa Ametam Founder And CEO of Dziffa.com; E-commerce For Africans By Africans

The African Diaspora find it particularly challenging whenever they are shopping online for African products. Most e-commerce platform that stocks African products, rarely sell products made by Africans, meant for Africans; many of the products could be made in China and not designed specifically with the African market in mind.

Dziffa.com went live on August 6th 2015, where the founder Dziffa Ametam said: “We have a $4 billion a year trade deficit in Ghana because we export raw materials and import finished goods. So the reason I started the site was to rectify the situation. Ghana gained its independence so we could control our manufacturing.”

The launch event elicited a social media eruption that culminated with Atenam being recognized as Entrepreneur of the Year at the African Youth Excellence Awards in Boston. At Inno8tiv magazine always on the lookout for any ground breaking innovative approach geared towards bettering the African, Caribbean and Blacks community. So we had to have an interview with Dziffa Ametam.

The following is our exclusive one-on-one with the Founder and CEO of Dziffa.com:

Inno8tiv Talk To Dziffa Ametam Founder And CEO of Dziffa.com; E-commerce For Africans By AfricansWhy did you launch Dziffa?

We launched Dziffa to inform the Diaspora that there is an online market they can get their made in Africa product from. There is already a growing demand of African clothing within the Diaspora and the launch was to challenge them to see beyond clothing and purchase household item, cosmetics, sports goods and art from the continent.

We wanted them to know that they do not have to limit their Afrocentric needs to clothing alone but make all necessary daily purchases from manufacturers on the continent.

What challenged (if any) have you faced since launching?

We had a few weeks to plan the launch and were expecting a very small crowd but we had way more people than expected some people travelled all over to attend and could not get in which was very disappointing because we wanted everyone in the Diaspora to attend and hear their feedback on our company and concerns. We underestimated the number of people interested in our service and would secure a larger space in future.

Where would you like to see Dziffa in three years?

I believe Africa would be the next shopping center of the world in the next three years and would like to see Dziffa.com leading the way and giving Diaspora in all corners of the world direct access to products from the continent.

There are a lot of non-African companies profiting of the Diaspora markets need for products from Africa while African manufacturers have the capacity to meet that demand and produce far superior products. In the past, the Diaspora were limited to their neighborhood shop for African products or when they visit the continent but through Dziffa.com they can purchase anything they need and be rest assured that it will be delivered, if they don’t find what they are looking for they can contact us and we would find it for them.

You can get social with Dziffa on the following social media accounts: Twitter @Dziffagh, Facebook.com/Dziffa and Instagram Dziffagh.

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