Malobi Ogbechie couldn’t afford to ship his fonio, so he started a logistics startup. He paced around the busy port, asking dockworkers for hours how to ship small batches of fonio – a nutrient rich West African grain – by sea, to save on air freight, which was eating into his margins. He couldn’t afford to ship a full container so he asked around about shippers that allowed cargo sharing. He found none.
Today, Ogbechie has changed from a struggling exporter to a founder who is trying to solve the problem. A fewis his logistics startup that allows small businesses to export their goods using shared containers for a fraction the cost of air freight. Kadan Kadan serves tens businesses, including ReelFruit a leading agritech startup, known for its dried fruits snacks.
Early Life and Education in England
At the age of 10, Ogbechie moved to Somerset, England from Port Harcourt, Nigeria, where he had spent his early childhood. His parents, who saw education as the key to economic success, enrolled Ogbechie and his brothers at boarding school. “It was okay,” he said at Pitstop, where we met. Malobi, one of the few Black pupils in their school, and his siblings had to deal with a subtle undercurrent racism. He reflected on a UK in the early 2000s that was less inclusive than it is today. “A group Black guys couldn’t enter a building without issues.” Malobi admitted that this atmosphere created an “victim mindset” which, if he hadn’t learned to shake off, could have defined him.
Years later, at the University of Bath he enrolled in European Studies, with French and German. This program promised fluency in both languages and a deep dive on European politics and economy. “I speak both,” he said. His later African travels were made easier by his knowledge of French.
At Bath, Malobi began to view Africa as a continent that was marginalized in global markets. After Bath, he went on to study international relations at Regents University London. Malobi remembered an almost insufferable curiousity about the continent when most of her classes were focused on Europe. “I could feel that my questions made some lecturers and students uncomfortable.”
Ogbechie was fired after a 3-month stint with a tech company providing business training solutions due to a mismatch between corporate culture. “I had to adapt to the corporate culture over time,” he says. He then obtained a position as a business manager at Panalpina a global logistics firm for 17 months. This was where he gained his first knowledge of air and ocean freight. He then continued his career as a business development manager at market research firms.
Discovering Fonio and Returning to Nigeria
Ogbechie, while working in market research discovered fonio. This small grain is native to West Africa and is primarily grown in Senegal. Mali, Guinea and Nigeria. He sold it to London retailers, whose nutritional value and African roots made the product unique at the time.
He said it was a side business until he decided to find out more. His curiosity led him on a two week journey through West Africa, including Senegal and Gambia. He also visited Guinea, Sierra Leone and Guinea, where fonio stretches under the open sky. In the Francophone countries, his French was very useful. After returning to London he quit his London job and moved to Nigeria to export grain full-time.
A little bit: The “little-by-little” solution
Ogbechie returned to Nigeria at the same time as COVID-19 pandemic locksdowns that swept the globe early in 2020. Even as global logistical bottlenecks increased, he continued to source grain from Nigeria and ship to his few customers via air freight. “I was either breaking-even or making minimal profits, just to keep my customers abroad happy,” explained he.
Frustrated with the high freight prices, Ogbechie searched for groupage services – sea freight logistics that allow small-scale exporters share container space in order to reduce costs – but found no solutions at his port. “I asked people on the road whether they knew anyone who offered this service. “No one knew,” he said. In retrospect, the service was available but it was largely off-line and difficult to find organically. “There was a gap.” “There was a clear gap.”
Although he continued to think about it, he only took concrete action to create a container service in 2022 after a short course on agribusiness at the Lagos Business School. Ogbechie was asked to pitch a business concept. He presented three concepts, including the processing of kenaf, a versatile West African grain, a food export venture and a shared container service. All three concepts received unanimous support. “Everyone supported the container idea,” Said Ogbechia.
In 2023, after months of research and networking he launched Kadan Kadan.
The Hausa phrase “Kadan Kadan,” means “little by small.”
Current plans and operations
The model was simple: groupage or shared containers. This allowed multiple businesses to pool goods in one sea shipment. Malobi, on Arise TV, said that Kadan Kadan shared containers were shipping the same amount of garri to Houston for $520. This included port fees.
This setup was digital. A web app let clients track shipments and get quotes. It also allowed them to book space. It reduced the paperwork that slowed down traditional startups. He noted that the shipping industry was not very tech-enabled, and his app sought to change this by offering transparency in areas where manual forms were causing delays. It did not own ships or warehouses and kept costs low by partnering up with carriers. This asset-light approach enabled scalability, allowing for more clients and containers to lead to cheaper per-ton prices. Ogbechie recalled that the first container was filled to 80%, even without paid advertisements. His rates were two to three times cheaper than air freight. Although slower than air freight (30 days versus 7 days), it was ideal for commodities like garri or plantain flour. Ogbechie stated that “for those products, it is the most profitable way of exporting”.
The initial progress of the startup was hampered by customs issues in UK, where goods were seized due to a lack awareness of import restrictions. The startup was forced to refund customers up to $10,000 in one instance, a substantial amount for a bootstrapped business. Ogbechie explained that he overcompensates because he doesn’t want to be known as a bad company. It could be my British upbringing but I’m willing to take the financial hit in order to ensure customer satisfaction.
Kadan Kadan offers groupage services as well as full-containers and refrigerated options. Reel Fruit is one of the clients, along with Oma’s Chips and Igbega Farms.
Ogbechie notes his biggest competitors are legacy, small firms that have quietly offered similar services over the years through word-of mouth, without advertising or branding.
He realised, in retrospect, that his initial ignorance was due to their low online visibility at the time and his unfamiliarity of Nigeria. He has been trying to increase visibility by making physical connections with people at events and associations. This, he says, has worked well. “After almost two years, many people in the food industry know us,” said he.
Ogbechie envisions Kadan Kadan developing into a comprehensive, technology-enabled logistic ecosystem with two key departments over the next five years. Kadan Trade will be a sourcing agent for Africa, facilitating connections among African suppliers in three key countries. Kadan Freight will, he hopes expand to include at least ten trucks for domestic logistics and efficient transportation.
Ogbechie wants to ensure that no one is left at the port in the same situation he was in five years, unable to affordably ship their African products to eager customers.
