Start-ups want to revolutionize the chaotic logistics sector on the African continent through technology. Lori Systems in Kenya is one of them. Jean-Claude Homawoo, its director, praises the merits of vehicle data in an interview with "Le Monde".

Jean-Claude Homawoo is CEO and co-founder of Lori Systems, which presents itself as the leader in e-logistics in Africa (its turnover is not public). An "Uber of trucks" that connects a network of some 20 vehicles owned by local carriers with companies that want to transport their raw materials or finished products.

From the major Kenyan or Nigerian ports to the landlocked cities of Central Africa, and vice versa: its trucks, the main means of transport on the continent, crisscross the roads of a dozen countries with the aim of streamlining and therefore reducing the disproportionate costs of logistics, which, according to the start-up, can represent up to 75% of the final price of a good in Africa.

What's the problem with logistics in Africa?

First, we have a problem of capital circulation. If you send a container from Rotterdam to Mombasa [Kenya's major port], for example, you pay the shipping companies in advance, before it even moves. On the other hand, when that container is put on a truck to reach its final destination in Africa, the local carrier is not going to be paid for at least thirty days, maybe forty-five or even sixty days.

We are talking about African transport SMEs that never have access to bank loans. They will have to pay the petrol in advance, pay the driver, set aside money to pay the police on the road… If the destination of this same container is Kampala [Uganda], it will perhaps cost them $2 [000 euros] per truck.

So, in Africa, the weakest link in the supply chain is asked to finance the transport of goods, sometimes for very large companies. It's a shame. In this context, the carrier will increase its prices, which is why freight is so expensive in Africa.

The state of the roads is often talked about as the number one problem...

For us it is not the case. The bad roads are not the main roads, they are the ones that go to the small villages and the consumption is not there. Of course there are road problems but it is rather the traffic jams, the border crossings, etc.

If you're shipping, say, steel to a factory that's going to process it and you're stuck at the border for a week, during that time the factory is full of workers who are being paid, and the chain doesn't move. That also costs money.

Marion Douet , Le Monde newspaper