On 20th February this year, IAMaga and TecAlliance launched their collaborative event aimed at continually supporting their member community to grow their business in the aftermarket parts industry in Africa digitally.
The community members are expected to participate and support this initiative of digitizing the automotive aftermarket business in Africa for the benefit of all as well as the suppliers. During the conference meeting, emerging challenges were identified and the best possible solutions discussed.
The main digital gap identified in the aftermarket parts space in East Africa is the car PARC, technical expertise and how to use the TecAlliance TecDoc data system.
Car PARC Data
Car parc is the details on the total number of vehicles on the road at a particular moment or at a geographical area in time, taking into account their specific models and part replacements. The data may as well include how many vehicles get scrapped over the years due to accidents, old age, lack of parts, etc.
“The formal operational vehicle parc data is missing in the TecAlliance TecDoc program. The vehicles themselves are known to TecAlliance because they are produced to the global level, and they source this information directly from the manufacturers. However, a lot of the vehicles in East Africa are imported as used vehicles and processes to formally record them as vehicles that are operating in East Africa is the current market gap that we are finding ways to bridge,” say Martin Hendriksen – IAMaga CEO.
Martin further explains that, “TecAlliance know the vehicle, but they don’t know the vehicle is here. So, the idea is to work together with the member community to see how we can flag the vehicles that are currently active in the East Africa region, so that when the members and the customers use the TecDoc service, will find that the vehicles are properly represented, and they can find the parts in the TecDoc system whereby the suppliers that are on the TecDoc system will make the parts available for the members to find them. This way, we can help with the data processing and improve the level of data in the TecDoc system.”
“What we are lacking from most countries in Africa at this point and time is the credible vehicle parc data. We have no clue what vehicles are flagged to which countries and when. We have got the basic idea of the exportation and importation of the vehicles, we just don’t know which countries in Africa they are available,” adds James Shaw – TecAlliance Catalog Manager.
According to James Brown – TecAlliance Sales Manager, in the quest to digitizing the Africa Automotive Aftermarket, the technical expertise is lacking, as well as how to use the TecAlliance TecDoc data in the required format. “The other concern is the brands that are using our service. Africa being an emerging market, we find a lot of brands are not on TecDoc and these are the Chinese brands or private labels, nonetheless, we do see major potential in growing this network in the future,” says Brown.
Counterfeiting
“Into counterfeiting, we have found a service provider of the very best hi-tech AI driven labelling technology available. They create a label which is the same to your fingerprint, each label is as unique as each of our fingerprints and each box gets a fingerprint. The idea is that, anyone through the distribution chain that needs to authenticate if that product is a fake or not, scans the label and gets into the digital ecosystem. If the product is a fake, that has a copied scan, you won’t be able to authenticate and the system will see that someone scanned a fake label and at this point the counterfeiters can be traced and apprehended,” emphasised Hendriksen.
Other forms of Mobility
“Increasingly our members around the world are starting to involve themselves in the EV business and hydrogen as well when it becomes more prevalent. But this is only in markets where we have lots of EV vehicles being sold. So we start to see in Europe where our members are being involved, we see in North America more of our members are being involved, but obviously in Africa without exception, there is minimal EV business currently in place. However, when the EV business grows in Africa, our members will subsequently be involved and from IAMaga perspective we will support our members, connect them to the correct suppliers and help them animate that business,” says Hendriksen.
According to him, the community is not anticipating even in the mature markets around the world that EV is going to take over completely. “It will have a place, but we also believe that the lobby for EVs as the only energy source in Automotive is misguided. Hydrogen is also going to potentially have a place. We also think that alternative fuels such as biofuels for example will and should have a role to play. In Brazil for example, biofuels constitute the 80% of the fuels used in the Brazilian market, therefore, there is no reason why biofuel can’t be produced anywhere in the world, so it has to have a place in respect to more fuels that are used in mobility,” he adds.
Also read: IAMaga – The Nexus gateway to Africa
At TecAlliance, James Brown confirms listing of some of the EVs in TecDoc and not so many hydrogen powered vehicles yet. “We don’t foresee electric vehicles coming to Africa soon. However, should the current environment change, of course we will be geared up for when that time does come,” adds Brown.
IAMaga and TecAlliance promise
“We are committed to engage with TecAlliance to address the different aftermarket challenges on the ground. Together we will find the best solution possible and remain supportive of our member’s aftermarket businesses in Africa,” – Martin Hendriksen.
“The event launch was a strategic initiative specifically targeted for the Africa automotive Aftermarket where we need to focus more on the Africa potential. The IAMaga-TecAlliance partnership has been a success beyond our expectations. We have gained significant insights from our members, and it’s evident that thorough discussions are essential for charting our next steps. This involves closely monitoring the progress of vehicle data development and leveraging support from our services to propel the digitization of the African Automotive Aftermarket. Our recent meetings with members were highly productive, with a shared enthusiasm for collaboration. They’re eager to engage in initiatives such as acquiring bulk data, including from local government authorities, and aiding in the development of the local carparc data tailored for the Kenyan market,” – James Brown.
“East Africa is an important location for us and in fact the annual IAMaga summit will most likely be held in Kigali this year, it could potentially be Kenya next year,” – Martin Hendriksen.
“To the automotive aftermarket business owners, manufacturers and suppliers: Join the IAMaga – TecAlliance community, support the digitization initiative and secure the opportunity to become digital for this is the way to the future especially in the automotive aftermarket business,” – James Brown.
