Our Interview With Industry DIsruptors Terminus.ng

Terminus.ng is a startup in Jos that is focused on disrupting the eCommerce platform with cCommerce (chat commerce). They have introduced something that's currently missing from the ecommerce industry and that's the option to bargain for the best available price.


A team of four dedicated and hardworking youths, Terminus.ng is focused on making life easier for their clients by helping them run errands so they could have more time to focus on doing other things.

Terminus.ng is an online version of the famous Jos main market, buyers get connected to sellers when they input their Whatsapp number on their website. This happens in less than a minute.

Unlike the normal online market, Terminus.ng allows buyers to bargain for the best possible price. This is in a bid to introduce the African culture of bargaining into our online market which has been missing from the beginning.

Their platform allows people to shop for anything they want from the comfort of their homes/offices using their mobile phones. Our TechiesInJos (TIJ) team sat down with the brains behind this movement and here's what we talked about.

Richard (TIJ Interviewer): Welcome to TechiesInJos: Can we get to know you? 

Terminus Team: My name is Fwangmun Dashuwa, I am team leader and co-founder.
My name is Victor Bala Itse and I am head: Media/publicity and co-founder.
My name is Maigizo Palang, I am Logistics/planning and co-founder.
My name is Joy Kangmwa Gofwen, I am public relations and co-founder.

Richard: What inspired you guys to start Terminus.ng? 

Victor: I was sent on an errand to buy something in the market. On my way out, I thought I was going to spend less than an hour in the market. I ended up spending over 3 hours, I visited about 7 shops before i could get something that fit the description and the price range of what I wanted. That evening, I sat down with my friends and shared my experience, then we thought, what if there was a platform where you can sit in the comfort of your home and be able to negotiate and get exactly what we want. Here's how Terminus.ng came to be.

Fwangmun: In a nutshell, what really inspired us is the everyday societal problem faced in buying and selling.

Richard: Why do you think you are best people to solve this problem?

Fwangmun: Ideas spring up from an existing problem, we have identified an existing problem, this is personal to us. We decided if this is a problem, why not find a solution. We believe we are the right people because we have identified a problem that is personal to us.

Richard: Interesting, What are your mode of operation? As a buyer, how do I connect to a merchant on your platform?

Palang: As a buyer, you head over to www.terminus.ng, You input your whatsapp number an agent comes online and reach out to you and asks what you want. You respond, and then we link you up to merchants. It works this way, Lets say you want to buy shoes, you reach out to us, we ask what type of shoes and then connect you to merchants who sell the type you are looking for. If you are not comfortable with the price the merchant is saying, we connect you to another, we don't interfere in your discussion, we are just there to monitor your conversation.

Richard: What other services do you offer? 

Palang: We run errands, pick up groceries, help you pick up letters at the post office etc. Want something done as soon as possible? Head over to www.terminus.ng and input your Whatsapp number, an agent will reach out to you. Tell him/her what you want and it continues from there.

Fwangmun: We have a website, our website tells you what to do. When you input your number, we reach out to you and ask you what you want and try and connect you to an individual or organization that offers the service or sells the product you are looking for. We are a connecting platform.

Richard: How do you connect with the merchants? Do you reach out to them or do they reach out to you?

Palang: It's a two way thing, we approach some and some approach us. The awareness is still ongoing, there are people that have not heard of terminus.ng, for those people, we go them. At the crowdfunding campaign, a woman reached out to me after we pitched and said she would like her business to be on our platform.

Richard: What's your return policy like? There are substandard goods in the market. What do you do when a buyer realizes the product he/she bought is fake? 

Victor: We have a clearly defined policy that states that we are trying to protect the interest of our clients. The issue of getting fake or substandard products is one of problems we are trying to prevent. We only do business with clients we believe are very reliable. And also, before the transaction is complete, the buyer has to be satisfied with the order once we deliver it. Once we authenticate that something is fake, we take it back. Most of the clients we have gotten has been as a result of referrals, so we are committed on providing the best value to our clients.

Fwangmun: To cap it off, the business is built on trust and integrity, we on our part only enlist merchants who sell original products. We do our research, we ask questions, we get to check if the goods are original. We have an agreement with the merchant when we are picking a product or item to deliver to a client, the merchant knows that the deal is not complete until the client okays it. We can say our return policy is up to standard because so far we have not had any problem with that.

Richard: What are your numbers like? Engagements? Conversions? 

Fwangnum: We have over 155 registered merchants on our platform, we have had over 4500 engagements, completed over 70 sales and have sold goods worth over 370,000 from March to August. These numbers are really small to us but we are not deterred.

Richard: Listening to all these, I am wondering, how does Terminus.ng make profit? 

Fwangmun: The focus right now is on creating value, completing as much transactions as possible. We are focused on helping people free up time by helping them run errands.

Richard: Are you implying you have not made profit? 

Victor: We earn commissions from every transaction that happens through our platform.

Richard: How do you track if a buyer has made a purchase? 

Fwangmun: We use an existing IM platform which is Whatsapp. We connect buyers and sellers. In the process of connecting them, the merchants agree to our terms and conditions which state that we are part of the discussion. Terminus.ng would be part of the conversation till the sale happens.

Richard: What is your method of delivery? How do you deliver your orders?

Victor: We started by using the normal private transport but we recently purchased and branded our keke Napep (tricyle). This is what we use for our delivery.

Richard: What about outside Jos deliveries? 

Fwangmun: For outside Jos deliveries, we partner with transport lines so we can send the product and goods. We recently fulfilled orders from neighboring  states like Kaduna and Bauchi and that was how we delivered.

Richard: Terminus.ng is trying to solve a real problem in the society, what problem have you guys encountered on this journey?

Palang: I'd say trust. Getting the merchants to trust us with their products has been one of the major challenges we have faced so far. We have a problem of fraud in Nigeria so we have people struggling to believe.

Joy: Another problem is clients not knowing exactly what they want. Sometimes we get clients that come to our platform wanting to buy shoes but not really knowing their exact shoe sizes. This is one of the problems we have faced recently.

Victor: When we birthed the idea, we thought we would just walk into the market and the whole thing would work. The first problem we had was trying to connect with the real owner of the store. We visited over 200 merchants and the first thing we heard with a large percentage of them is "Oga no dey" (Boss is not around). The most amazing thing for me is we go out there, we face problem, we come back to the drawing board, restrategize and then go back and solve the problem. Our determination to succeed makes us come back to the drawing board every time we face a problem out there.


Richard: How do you measure success? 

Palang: Customer satisfaction is one way, this is what pushes us to do better. Success to us is when a client his happy with his/her transaction.

Joy: Another way we measure success is the level of engagement we have on our platforms.

Richard: How do you deal with deliveries that have a stipulated time frames? 

Fwangmun: This business is built on trust and integrity. Delivering on time is a plus for the business. We first of all look at the time and check if it's realistic or not. we would only accept an order if we are sure we can meet up with the time, if we can't, we would say so.

Richard: What's your goal for the next 2,3,5 years?

Joy: Our goal for the next two three years is to make as many peoples' life as easy as possible by helping them free up time so they can focus on doing other things.

Fwangmun: Our goal right now is to break Jos, Bukuru metropolis, we understand this would not be easy but we are focused on breaking Jos, Plateau state and then Nigeria before we move to neighboring African countries.

Richard: What happens if terminus.ng fails? 

Terminus Team: Failure is not an option. We could evolve into something else, the platform could birth more children in the future but we are not thinking about failure.

TechiesInJos Team: Great to have you guys, I hope we can have you again on our platform in a year or two to talk about your progress. Thank you.

TechiesInJos and Terminus.ng Team at nHubNG

Terminus.ng is currently crowdfunding to raise money that would help them achieve their dreams faster. You can support them by clicking.

Photo Credits: Emmanuel Omale

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