Is It There Yet?

April 1, 2019

UM-Dearborn grad delivers successful shipping solution to his native Nigeria

Ife Oyedele II

When Ife Oyedele II (’13 B.B.A.) was on campus, he’d send parcels to family in his native Nigeria. But there was a problem — the packages wouldn’t always get there. So, after graduation, he moved home and co-founded a company that would deliver a solution.

Oyedele discovered Nigerian transport issues stemmed from a lack of technology, accountability and monetary incentive. So he built a business model with that in mind.

Kobo360 — run by Oyedele and business partner Ozi Ozor, whom he met while at UM-Dearborn — is an Uber-like app connecting Nigerian truckers to companies with freight needs.

Here’s how it works: A company puts in a freight request through the Kobo360 dashboard and available drivers are notified there’s a new job they can accept; all transactions — including instant driver payment upon successful delivery — are coordinated through Kobo360. After a job, drivers and companies can leave reviews for one another.

What started from a personal experience now has multinational reach. Unilever, Honeywell and DHL are among those using the solution Oyedele helped create.