Valcertra Digital Platform Aims to Address Africa’s Systemic Export Challenges, Says Founder Odoh

Prof. Benard Odoh, Founder and CEO of Valcertra, during a platform demonstration session with stakeholders.

By Aderogba George

Abuja, Dec. 16, 2025 – Africa’s persistent underrepresentation in global trade, accounting for less than 3% of the total, is not due to a lack of quality products but to deep-seated systemic failures. This is the core challenge that Valcertra, a new digital trade platform scheduled for launch in 2026, is being purpose-built to solve, according to its Founder and CEO, Prof. Benard Odoh.

Speaking at a demonstration session with stakeholders in Abuja, Odoh positioned Valcertra not merely as another marketplace, but as “Africa’s first full-stack trade infrastructure.” The platform is designed to be a secure digital ecosystem for buying, selling, and exporting products from Nigeria and across the continent, directly targeting the bottlenecks that have stifled African exports for decades.

The Scale of the Problem: A $38 Billion Annual Opportunity Loss

Odoh framed the issue in stark economic terms. “Each year, African small and medium enterprises lose an estimated $38 billion in export opportunities,” he stated. He attributed this massive gap not to product quality, but to a breakdown of trust and efficiency in the trade chain. Key pain points include:

• Product Rejections: Inconsistent quality and failure to meet international standards lead to costly last-minute refusals.
• Documentation Gaps: Complex, paper-based, and non-standardized export documentation causes delays and errors.
• Fragmented Systems: Disconnected processes between producers, inspectors, logistics providers, and financiers create opacity and risk.

“Nearly 70% of African producers who attempt to export never succeed,” Odoh explained, “because the pathways to global markets remain unreliable, opaque, and slow.”

Valcertra’s Integrated Solution: Building Trust Through Verification and Technology

The platform’s strategy to bridge this trust gap is multi-layered and integrated:

1. Quality & Compliance Verification: Valcertra will partner with accredited laboratories, quality assurance bodies, and field inspectors to verify products and producers before they are listed. This pre-vetting ensures items meet global compliance requirements, dramatically reducing rejection rates.
2. Secure Transaction Framework: The platform will incorporate secure escrow services, digital wallets, and verification codes. This financial infrastructure protects both buyers and sellers, ensuring payment is released only upon satisfactory delivery and reducing fraud.
3. End-to-End Traceability: By digitizing the chain of custody, from farm or factory to port, Valcertra aims to provide transparency that enhances product value—a feature increasingly demanded by global consumers and regulators.

“Trust sits at the heart of every transaction on Valcertra,” Odoh emphasized. “For exporters, this means fewer rejections, lower compliance costs, faster transactions, and the confidence that once your product meets the standard, the market is assured.”

Unlocking Value Across the Ecosystem

Odoh projected that successfully addressing these bottlenecks could unlock over $1 billion in annual trade value. The ripple effects would be transformative:

• For SMEs: More businesses would become “export-ready,” gaining access to higher-value markets.
• For Financial Institutions: Banks could offer “safer financing” for trade, as the platform’s verification and tracking de-risks transactions.
• For Africa’s Brand: Products would gain a reputation for reliability, making them more competitive globally.

The platform targets high-demand commodities like cocoa, shea, cashew, spices, ginger, and crafts, where global demand is strong but supply chains are often inefficient.

Stakeholder Endorsements and Future Vision

The demonstration session included key institutional players, signaling early ecosystem support. Dr. Emmanuel Ojowuro, Group Head of Product Development and Innovation at the Bank of Industry, endorsed the platform’s safety and potential.

Participant Ifeanyi Eleje, a 2023 senatorial candidate, offered a forward-looking suggestion: incorporating product insurance to further mitigate transactional risk—a concept that aligns with Valcertra’s full-stack ambition.

The presence of bodies like the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat highlights the platform’s alignment with national and continental trade facilitation goals.

Odoh concluded with a call for collaboration: “We welcome technology and data partners to deepen quality assurance… and commodity associations to mobilise producers and accelerate market access.” Valcertra’s success hinges on this ecosystem approach, aiming to replace fragmented, high-friction trade with a streamlined, trustworthy, and digital gateway for Africa to the world.

Edited by Uche Anunne