How Ghana’s Oceansmall is providing fishing villages with commercial access.

Through its digital platform, Ghanaian startup Oceansmall is enabling small-scale fishing communities to access markets and overcome obstacles including low income, low output levels, and subpar living conditions.

Oceansmall, founded in 2020 by Caroline Pomeyie, has created and applied fundamental technologies to improve and optimize the supply chain for fisheries. With the help of its delivery application, which seamlessly connects suppliers and customers, seafood goods are delivered quickly and efficiently.

We use software created especially for this purpose to monitor the supply chain and improve our connections with clients and suppliers. In addition to enhancing transparency, these technologies help with better supply chain and logistics, Pomeyie told Disrupt Africa.

Understanding how crucial it is to preserve the quality of seafood, we have made an investment in a cool van to transport supplies from suppliers to customers. This minimizes post-harvest losses while simultaneously guaranteeing freshness. We have also set up a cool room so that we can effectively manage and store inventory. This establishment is essential to maintaining the quality of seafood products and lowering waste.

In actuality, all very basic material, but really powerful. Pomeyie claimed that utilizing these fundamental technologies was “transforming the fishing industry” and enhancing community well-being.

“One step at a time, we hope to make a lasting impact on the well-being of small-scale fishing communities by combining technological innovation with last-mile market access,” she stated.

When Oceansmall first started out, we saw a large market need in small-scale fishing villages. These communities were facing difficulties like limited access to lucrative marketplaces, inadequate cold storage, ineffective logistics, and a lack of funding. High post-harvest losses, low production, and subpar living circumstances for fishermen were the outcomes. The flaw we saw was the requirement for an all-encompassing solution that dealt with these issues in a thorough manner. We saw that concentrating on last-mile market access, financial services, and deploying fundamental technology to optimize the fisheries supply chain may have a good effect.

Initiatives from Oceansmall have shown encouraging take-up. The usage of its technology solutions, such as supply chain tracking and delivery software, has expanded along with the number of suppliers and clients using its platform. Although the firm is only now actively working and selling in Accra, its goals and influence are far-reaching.

“We source our seafood stock from fishing communities in Accra, Keta, and Takoradi, covering both the eastern and southern parts of the country,” Pomeyie stated. “Our supply chain extends beyond Accra.”

We are able to take advantage of the wide variety of seafood options available from various places thanks to our strategic sourcing technique, which benefits the fishing communities in Accra, Keta, and Takoradi as well. Our goal in linking these groups to our platform is to expand the network so that suppliers and clients can gain from it.

According to her, Oceansmall is looking for ways to grow its business in these locations and possibly in other places with related demands. Oceansmall receives a commission or charge for the services rendered on its platform.

“Our objective is still to improve overall livelihoods and foster sustainable growth by positively impacting the lives of fishermen throughout Ghana,” the spokesperson stated.