Episode 6: The Full Stack Experience
Dukka's Business Operations Ecosystem for Merchants
I recorded this episode with Dukka Founder Keturah Ovio in January 2024. Dukka provides digital payment and bookkeeping technology to Nigerian merchants, and my intention was to include it in The Trajectory Africa’s previous series on fintech. But when I listened to the conversation, it sounded more like commerce and less like fintech, although enabling payments is clearly part of Dukka’s value proposition. So, I moved it to the current series on digital commerce and logistics.
There’s a bit of irony associated with that decision; however, because fintech and digital commerce are linked. There’s no trade without a means to pay, and trade is what necessitates financial services. The latter is a key assertion that Abraham Augustine made in the first episode of the fintech series. The relationship between fintech and digital commerce is also a recurring theme in the current series, when fintech shows up alongside digital commerce models as embedded payment infrastructure or a service like access to working capital.
What’s clear from my conversation with Keturah is that the marriage of digital commerce and fintech should be customized to meet the needs of the end customer. So, check out the pod. In the meantime, here’s some food for thought:
📦 1. Business operations, not payments, are the real bottleneck.
Many startups in Africa solve for digital payments, but Keturah points out that for small businesses, the bigger issue is operations—tracking inventory, understanding cash flow, and making data-driven decisions.
“Payment is not the only problem that small businesses face in Africa. It's being able to have access to a full suite solution that helps them automate and run their business
end to end.”
📱 2. Dukka is built to mirror the analog habits of small businesses.
Rather than forcing behavioral change, Dukka digitizes existing tools like ledger books and calculators. Its intuitive UX and physical onboarding reduce the friction of going digital.
“If you do it in a book, we should be able to help you transition to doing it on an app.”
🧱 3. Superior UX requires full stack control, including hardware.
While many see hardware as a liability, Dukka sees it as a path to controlling the user experience. Like Apple, they’re building the ecosystem end-to-end, from the Dukka Terminal to the software that powers it.
“Wherever you are, we turn you into a merchant…[the Terminal] is a phone that makes you money.”
❤️ 4. Deep distribution demands deep empathy.
As part of the product development process, the Dukka team physically visited shops and watched merchants use prototypes. Additionally, Dukka’s sales strategy is 90% offline. Physical onboarding, in-market research, and shop-by-shop sales allow the team to meet business owners where they are.
“We took that clickable prototype, went into the market and just went shop to shop… and they gave us feedback.”
🌍 5. The long game is an ecosystem with global remittance potential.
Dukka’s long-term play is an ecosystem that connects merchants and customers. The roadmap includes a consumer app that lets users abroad shop from vetted merchants in Nigeria, merging commerce, remittances, and financial inclusion.
“You could look for merchants around [your] auntie’s house that sell bread and milk and noodles and rice…and pay from your apartment in New York.”
Round up, complete. See you in two weeks!