Episode 3: Obi Ozor of Kobo360 - Disruption, Innovation and Building Resilience as a Founder

Fiftyfaces Focus Nigerian Voices Podcast

Obi Ozor is Founder of Kobo360, a privately owned, pan-African technology company disrupting the African third-party logistics industry. Kobo360 was named one of the Top 100 SMEs in Africa in 2018 by Business Day and Disruptor of the Year at the Africa CEO Forum on 2019. The company uses big data and agile technology to reduce friction and scale efficiency in the African logistics ecosystem. He previously held positions at Uber, JP Morgan and Bezmo Global, an international, socially-minded investment firm focused on the African continent.
In this discussion we trace Obi's journey from investment banking to Uber, and ultimately what led him to develop the genesis of Kobo360, which seeks to Brin data and technology to innovate in the African third-party logistics industry. We talk about the problem Obi identified that needed to be solved, and how he devised a business model to do that.
The challenges in establishing a business in Nigeria were enormous - from challenges in recruiting talent, to navigating regulation to implementing technology to setbacks due to Covid, which turned out to have a silver linking in the push it gave to digitization. Starting a business in a challenging environment also enabled Kobo360 and its founding team to build resilience, to anticipate challenges and to fortify itself for expansion into other regions.
Obi is a student of business theory and shares his love of constant, lifelong learning as well as his brief that is is not strategy but implementation where leaders should focus - strategy alone not being executable. There is more information about Kobo360 on the following link:
https://www.kobo360.com/NG/en/
This podcast series is brought to you with the kind support of:
Romco Metals, producers of truly green aluminium, copper, and other non-ferrous metals from the African continent, dedicated to decarbonising supply chains across the globe by recycling our way to a sustainable future. Romco: Invest, Reduce, & Grow; and
Mbuyu Capital Partners, an investment company focusing exclusively on Africa, managing portfolios of funds and direct investments for institutional clients and impact investors.