Trade Links Africa: Uganda's own eBay

By George Wabweyo

 

Taha Mohsen was in a dilemma; he desperately needed to get his hands on a second hand BlackBerry phone. Something he could actually afford.

 

The problem was that even after painstakingly browsing several shops along Kampala Road, he still could not get one. In a last ditch attempt to procure the coveted gadget, he posted “a BlackBerry phone is urgently needed” on his Facebook wall. The results were overwhelming. He received numerous comments and replies. Mostly from friends who had one on sale or knew a place where second hand BlackBerries could be found. It was a eureka moment for him.

 

Along with his close friends, Romeo Banyenzakyi, Walter Kahuma and Felix Ntawi, he set up a Facebook group called the African eBay, a knock off of eBay, one of the world’s biggest e-commerce sites. “It was really simple; all you needed to do was request to join the group. 

 

“Once a member, you gain access to several threads with people selling their stuff. Or you can advertise whatever you are selling and wait for someone interested to reply via your inbox,” Romeo Banyezakyi says. As it caught on and the group was edging towards 1,000 members, it became obvious that the words eBay could produce copyright infringement issues in future. So they shed the whole name and stumbled on Trade Links Africa (TLA).

 

That was back in May. Five months later, the group has over 30,000 active members, mostly drawn from Uganda and grosses up to around 10,000 posts per week. 

 

In fact, TLA, as it is fondly called, is like a major store with a wide array of goods. From a small memory card to a piece of land in western Uganda to second hand cars; TLA has got it all. 

 

Less than three hours after I put in a request for an external hard disk, I received more than five posts from members willing to sell them to me at prices that would get main street Kampala Road shops out of business. All I needed to do was call them on “this number” or “come to Mutasa Kafeero.” I never did meet any of them but their prices could make anyone teleport to their locations. 

 

“Thanks to TLA, I make daily sales and get good referrals,” Allan Gi, a group member who runs an electronics selling outfit called Inspector Gadgets says. Indeed, Allan Gi is the epitome of TLA success. A regular visitor to the groups’ page will always stumble on his posts. Dickens Haguma, also a group member on the other hand has mixed feelings about the group. 

 

“I have done many deals on TLA. I have even lent money to crooks and conmen but am still doing business on the group,” he says. “It’s all about being sharp, do not let a cent out of your pockets until you see the product and approve it. And do not release the product until you see the cash,” he adds.

 

Indeed, like any business community, once the market place is said to be lucrative, thieves, pickpockets and conmen will join the club. TLA is teeming with all types of swindlers and con artists preying on both buyers and sellers.

“Our biggest challenge is those bad elements; people advertising for guns, prostitutes, hackers and drugs,” says Kahuma the group’s administrator. He explains that every few hours, they monitor posts and get rid of those they feel are in bad taste. 

“As for people who are involved in suspicious deals or scams, we block them and expose them on the group’s wall. In fact, at least one con artist is exposed every week on the group’s wall.”

So when do these four brilliant guys start cashing in on their efforts? 

 

“We decided to do a website. It is in the pipeline and that is where we hope to cash in.” 

The group admits that it takes so much to divert people from Facebook to the website but they will depend solely on the “reputation” they have made on Facebook to record another success story. And unlike other online trade portals and sites from Uganda, TLA will still incorporate social networking in the core of its business. 

 

Till then, the “guys” are gearing up for the official launch of the trade links website, an unknown path for them but with fingers crossed and a little optimism, the “guys” might just mirror their facebook success beyond expectations.