Nigerian App Helps Shoppers Find Cheapest Food Prices

Shopping for tomatoes during Nigeria's 2024 Sallah celebration, Ademuyiwa Taofeek noticed something puzzling: the same basket cost far more in Lagos than in Jos, a farming region hundreds of miles away.

When sellers blamed high transport costs, Taofeek decided to test their explanation himself. He bought tomatoes in Jos, paid to ship them to Lagos, and still spent less than buying locally.

That simple experiment revealed a bigger problem: Nigerian shoppers had no easy way to compare food prices across different markets. Without that information, sellers could charge whatever they wanted.

Taofeek teamed up with Caleb Adenegan, who had previously built education and social networking tools, to create a solution. Together they launched Bango in November 2025, a free platform where buyers share what they paid, where they shopped, and which sellers offered the best deals.

The app works like a community message board for market intelligence. Users submit the commodity name, price, quantity, market location, and a photo. Other shoppers can then search for specific items like tomatoes or peppers and see real prices from real buyers across Nigeria.

The timing couldn't be better. Nigerian households spend over half their income on food, and the country's food and drink market is projected to reach nearly $99 billion by 2033.

But Adenegan and Taofeek realized that knowing about cheaper prices elsewhere didn't automatically help people access them. So they built Shopr, a buying service that sources produce directly from farmers and delivers it to customers in Abuja.

The startup has already processed up to 50 orders since launching Shopr in June. They keep costs down through shared delivery, grouping orders from the same neighborhood and splitting logistics expenses.

The Ripple Effect

Bango's approach mirrors how Nigerian communities traditionally shared market knowledge, when neighbors would tell each other where to find the best deals. Now that information system works at scale, helping anyone with a phone make smarter food purchasing decisions.

The startup is preparing to launch Bango Market Day, where buyers can pool their orders for bulk discounts. By aggregating demand across multiple customers, they can negotiate better prices directly with farmers.

For millions of Nigerians navigating unpredictable food costs, a little transparency is already making a big difference.