Nigerian Founder Builds Trade Platform Linking 1,300 Businesses

A young entrepreneur who learned business by watching his mother sell rice in Nigerian markets is now connecting suppliers and retailers across Africa through a digital platform.

David Chima grew up in Owerri, Nigeria, where his mother worked as a university administrator and ran a side business selling rice to supplement her modest civil servant salary. She taught him the fundamentals: find a warehouse offering discounts, buy in bulk, and resell at a fair premium.

Those lessons stuck. By the time Chima entered university in 2013 to study engineering, he was already running his own operation, sourcing custom clothing and branded T-shirts for students and organizations.

His breakthrough came in 2018 when the student government hired him to supply souvenirs for up to 5,000 new students. Chima traveled to Aba, a major commercial hub in Nigeria, built relationships with bulk producers, and managed the entire supply chain from design to delivery.

The work required precision. He negotiated quantities, agreed on designs, funded production out of his own pocket, and got paid only after delivering orders. For smaller clients, he collected deposits upfront to manage cash flow.

After graduating in 2021, Chima faced a challenge bigger than campus logistics. African businesses struggled to connect with global buyers who hesitated to pay suppliers they'd never met. Trust was the missing link.

In 2022, he co-founded Bondly with Isaac Edmund, creating an escrow service that held payments safely until transactions completed. But they realized escrow alone wasn't enough.

In September 2024, they pivoted to Kuraway, named after the Japanese word for storehouse. The platform now functions as a full marketplace where African suppliers in sectors like agriculture, chemicals, and cosmetics can connect with buyers across borders.

The Ripple Effect

Kuraway isn't just solving a business problem. It's building infrastructure for the African Continental Free Trade Area, helping small and medium businesses participate in cross-border commerce that was previously too risky or complex.

The platform now supports merchants in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon. With a team of 10 in Lagos, Kuraway has facilitated over $600,000 in trade and serves more than 1,300 businesses.

Chima is essentially doing what his mother did in those Owerri markets, just at continental scale: finding reliable suppliers, connecting them with buyers who need their goods, and making sure everyone gets paid fairly.

What started with rice distribution in a Nigerian market is now helping African businesses trade across borders with confidence.