Logistics for Trade: Why Paps is Building End-to-End Infrastructure

This episode of The Trajectory Africa features Bamba Lo, CEO and Co-founder of Paps, a technology-enabled logistics company operating across Francophone Africa. He explains how Paps delivers across the value chain— from freight and customs clearance to warehousing and last-mile delivery, while owning less than 1% of the vehicles in its network. Bamba also shares how Paps is building Africa’s critical logistics infrastructure domestically, in service of a broader mission to drive regional and international trade.

[00:00] - Introduction and Paps’ accidental origin story 
[05:40] - Paps’ value proposition and the role of technology
[07:14] - An asset-light approach to logistics infrastructure
[14:44] - Paps’ customers and products
[27:30] - Building a virtual regional market in francophone Africa
[33:00] - Logistics value chain breakdown and a model for collaborative infrastructure
[42:55] - Paps’ business model and growth
[58:46] - The future of logistics and a first principle for building in logistics

Recommendations:

• Chasing Outliers: Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa. A report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa. 

Connect on social media:

• Bamba Lo on LinkedIn and @Khadim_L on X
• Paps on LinkedIn and @Paps_app on X
• The Trajectory Africa on LinkedIn and @trajectoryafrica.bsky.social on Bluesky
• Tayo Akinyemi on LinkedIn, X, and @TayoAkinyemi.bsky.social on Bluesky