In the heart of Aba, a city known for its relentless hustle and hands-on innovation, I met Emmanuel-Jacobs, one of the co-founders of Shoptreo. What was intended to be a quick conversation turned into something much deeper, a reflective session about building, failing, trying again, and believing that African commerce can be built differently, from the inside out.
Before I met Emmanuel, I had heard whispers about Shoptreo, an “Amazon for local traders,” some people said. But I’ve learned over time that founders hate being boxed into quick analogies. Shoptreo isn’t trying to be Amazon. It’s trying to be something far more grounded, far more African. And in doing that, it’s carving out a new kind of commerce that understands the chaos and genius of informal markets.
The Eastern Dna
From the get-go, the vision was clear: Shoptreo wasn’t born from a pitch deck or a tech-bro brainstorm. It was born from observation. Emmanuel and his co-founder are sons of the region, while he is from Delta State, his co-founder is from Anambra. They both grew up in the region and have a deep understanding of the South-South and the South East, a place where markets never sleep. Everyone is both a trader and a strategist.
“The East is a school of business,” Emmanuel said during our chat. “Growing up here, we didn’t learn business from books. We learned from our environment watching mothers haggle, or the men at the markets import goods from China, and distribute them across Nigeria.”
For us, it was simple but urgent: Why is it so hard to move goods efficiently within African markets, especially those as active and vibrant as Aba?
I grew up in the East. Anyone who knows the region knows it’s a special place, a powerhouse of commerce, energy, and hard work. Every corner hums with people making, selling, fixing, and trading. But while the spirit is strong, the systems are not. Marketplaces are fragmented. Logistics is unreliable. Payments are mostly cash-based. And if you’re a trader, it’s almost impossible to scale beyond your stall or immediate environment.
That’s what we’re solving with Shoptreo.
We’re building a full-stack marketplace infrastructure company, starting from Aba, but with a pan-African vision. The goal is to make it easier for anyone, anywhere in Africa, to buy from and sell to these informal yet vital markets. Whether you’re in Lagos, Uyo, Ibadan or Accra, you should be able to trust that an item from Aba will reach you on time, as ordered.
This intimacy with the market is what gave Shoptreo its edge. It wasn’t built for VCs. It was built for Oga Emma in Ariaria, for the young woman selling thrift clothes on Instagram, and for the shoe designer in Ngwa Road who’s always low on packaging materials.
From Marketplace to Infrastructure
At first glance, Shoptreo looks like a marketplace. And that’s what it was, at least in the beginning. But as the founders started onboarding merchants, something happened. The traders didn’t just want to list products. They needed help with delivery, payments, trust-building, and brand identity.
“People don’t understand how fragmented the market is,” Emmanuel said. “If I’m selling shoes from Aba to a customer in Lagos, the problems start after I make the sale. How do I deliver it affordably? How do I assure the customer that I’m not a scammer? How do I track the payment? These are real problems.”
So Shoptreo began to evolve from a marketplace to a kind of operating system for informal commerce. Today, they provide logistics partnerships, digital storefronts, branding support, and, more recently, debt financing and payment tools that allow merchants to collect and manage money securely.
We’re building infrastructure, the rails that make it possible for local trade to thrive across regions. We’re designing systems for inventory management, payments, fulfilment, and trust. Think of it as Amazon or Jumia, but tailored to how trade actually works in the markets of Onitsha, Port Harcourt, or Aba.
We’re starting with Aba not only because it’s home, but because it’s strategic. It’s one of Nigeria’s largest commercial hubs, with deep-rooted ties to other cities. And unlike some markets within regions, which are often saturated and centralized, the South-East has the hunger, margin, and momentum for something truly transformational.“
Of course, the work hasn’t been easy.
Building Trust in a Market Wary of Platforms
Trust was a big theme in our conversation. In Nigeria, and especially in regions like the South-East, digital tools are often met with suspicion, and for good reason. Too many platforms have come, extracted data or money, and disappeared without accountability.
The team understood this. That’s why the Shoptreo team spends an unusual amount of time on the ground, talking to merchants one-on-one, debugging with them, and even helping them take product photos.
“The biggest challenge isn’t tech. It’s trust,” he says.
Convincing traders. Many of whom have done things a certain way for 30 years, to onboard to a digital system requires patience and presence. You can’t just walk into Ariaria or Cemetery Market and pitch them with a slide deck. You have to show up consistently. You have to deliver. You have to build in their language and at their pace.
For example, when we introduced digital order tracking, it wasn’t about sleek dashboards. It was about ensuring Mama Nkechi, who sells wrappers, could tell her customer in Benin City exactly when to expect her package, and have that promise hold. That’s what trust looks like.
We also realised that building “logistics” wasn’t just about moving things, it was about reducing anxiety. People need to know: If I send this, will it get there? If I pay online, will I receive it? If it’s wrong, can I return it?
Every time we deliver on that promise, the market shifts a little. Trust grows. Confidence deepens. And for us, that’s the real win.
We’re doing more than delivering goods, we’re restoring dignity to markets that have been overlooked by traditional tech.
We’re saying to Aba: You’re not a place to leave. You’re a place to build from.”
That’s how you build trust.”
This high-touch model might not sound scalable to a Silicon Valley investor. But it works in Aba. And it’s precisely what makes Shoptreo different.
No Glamour, Just Grit
When I asked Emmanuel what it feels like to build a startup in the Southeast, he laughed. Not a dismissive laugh, but the kind that carries weight.
“There’s no glamour here,” he said. “We’re doing this because we know that if we don’t build it, no one will. Some days it is incredibly hard and feels like forces are fighting hard to keep things local, but we keep pushing through.”
People ask us, “Why build from the South-East?”
And I say, “Because no one else is looking here. But everything is here.”
The hustle. The networks. The margins.
What’s been missing is structure , and that’s what we’re bringing.
We don’t want to be just another e-commerce company. We want to be the backbone of informal trade across Africa, the infrastructure layer that makes it all work. Whether it’s a trader in Aba, a buyer in Nairobi, or a supplier in Accra, they should all be able to plug into Shoptreo and move commerce with confidence.
We’re still early. We’re still learning. But we’re clear on the mission: to digitise and connect Africa’s most powerful engine, its markets.
This honesty struck me. So many times, tech narratives from outside the Lagos bubble are polished up to sound like underdog tales with happy endings. But the reality is often messy. The internet can goes off mid-delivery. A customer demands a refund before payment has even cleared. An investor ghosts after promising a follow-up.
But Shoptreo has kept going. Slowly. Steadily. Building trust, one merchant at a time.
What They’re Learning
The most interesting part of my conversation with Emmanuel Jacobs wasn’t about what Shoptreo is doing. It was about what they’re learning.
One of those lessons is this: small brands in informal markets don’t just want digital tools. They want identity. They want to be seen.
“We have merchants who sold goods but didn’t have accounts with any financial institutions. They would either keep their money in cash or with the esusu or ajo informal money savers which can often be unreliable. We had to first educate them on the importance of having a bank account and then set up one for them, some we had to help create a name, a logo, and a tagline for their business.”
That insight has shaped how Shoptreo positions itself , not just as a tech company, but as a brand builder. They’re helping traders not just sell more, but create structures in their business that helps them sell better, with pride.
Looking Forward
Shoptreo is participating in a much larger shift, the reimagination of informal trade across Africa. In the absence of adequate infrastructure, platforms like Shoptreo are creating new bridges: between offline and online, between trust and transaction, between hustle and dignity. For Shoptreo, the journey is just beginning. But the direction is clear: they’re building not only a company, but a movement, one market at a time.
When I asked Emmanuel about what the future holds for Shoptreo, he was clear-eyed and deeply intentional. “We’re not building for an IPO,” he said. “We’re building to scale, increase market share, and eventually draw the attention of serious retail investors who believe in the informal sector.”
For him and his team, growth isn’t just about revenue, it’s about reach and relevance. It’s about making Shoptreo a default tool for informal market commerce, not only in Aba, but across Nigeria and the continent. As the platform expands to more markets, their goal is to become indispensable to merchants who have long been excluded from the digital economy.
But Emmanuel acknowledges that it’s not enough for one company to scale. The ecosystem itself needs to grow, and that requires more than just capital. “We need more startups to set up in this region,” he said, referring to the South-East and South-South. “And we need better publicity and platforms that are committed to telling our stories. What Techsudor is doing is a great example of that.”
He speaks with optimism about the efforts of the Enugu and Abia State governments, describing their digital policies as “paving the way” for scalable innovation in the region. According to him, if the momentum continues, the next 5 to 10 years could see southeastern markets rival Lagos in both activity and investment.
“There’s no reason why Ariaria or Main Market Onitsha can’t become as big as Balogun or Alaba,” he said. “We just need to keep building, together.”
He’s also grateful they didn’t relocate the startup to Lagos, despite the temptation in the early days. “We considered it,” he admitted, “but looking back now, we’re glad we stayed. With the kind of tech revolution happening in the East, led by places like Enugu and Abia, it feels like we’re right where we need to be.”
For Shoptreo, the journey is just beginning. But the direction is clear: they’re building not only a company, but a movement, one market at a time.
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