The partner
every trader
needs

What if you had a partner who understood your business and could help you think through every decision?

Tijah is that partner. Talk about your sales, your pricing, or your plans. Tijah listens and helps you see the full picture. It can even keep track of your books, so you don't have to. It works by voice or text on WhatsApp.

Talk to us →
The Problem

Millions of traders make decisions from memory

Nigeria has over 12 million informal traders: market women, kiosk owners, roadside sellers. They know their products, but most have no idea how much money they're actually making. They set prices based on what feels right, not what the numbers say. And most of them are doing all of this alone.

The tools that exist today ask traders to type into apps. This is not what they need. They need someone who can help them understand what's going on in their business and figure out what to do next.

12M+
Informal retail micro-businesses in Nigeria
NBS MSME Survey, 2020
78%
Of those who track finances rely entirely on memory or a handwritten notebook
Moniepoint Informal Economy Report, 2025
85%
Are sole proprietors, running the entire business alone
Moniepoint Informal Economy Report, 2025
They can't see their profit
Money comes in, money goes out. Most traders can't tell you how much they made last week.
Pricing is a guess
Most traders set prices based on what others charge or what feels right, without knowing if they're making money on each sale.
No one to think with
Most traders run their business alone. Every decision about what to stock, how to price, or whether to try something new is made with no one to talk it through with.
Existing tools don't help
Most business apps want you to type in data and fill out forms. They help you record things, but they don't help you understand what the numbers mean.
Why Now

Three things that make
this possible now

This problem has been around for a long time. What's changed is that the technology to solve it now exists and is affordable.

AI is smart enough now
AI can now understand a trader's business, do the maths, and have a real conversation about it. Building this on WhatsApp is now affordable enough to offer to informal traders.
AI that understands voice, text, and photos
Traders already use WhatsApp voice notes
95% of Nigerian internet users are on WhatsApp, and voice notes are how traders already communicate. There's nothing new to learn.
95% WhatsApp penetration · DataReportal, 2024
Costs are rising fast
79% of informal businesses report rising costs. Traders who don't know how much they're making are the ones getting hurt the most.
79% facing rising costs · Moniepoint, 2025
How it works

Just talk to Tijah.
It takes care of the rest.

There's no app to download and no forms to fill out. Just open WhatsApp and start talking about your business.

Business Model

Free for sole proprietors.
Paid tiers for growing businesses.

Sole proprietors get a business partner for free, permanently. As their business grows and they need more, paid tiers are available.

Always free
Starter
For sole proprietors · no credit card
  • Help understanding your business
  • Voice & text conversations
  • Sales & expense recording
  • Daily summaries of your sales
  • Works on WhatsApp, no app to download
Subscription
Business
For growing shops
  • Deeper help with your business
  • Take a photo of your sales book and Tijah records it
  • Weekly and monthly business reports
  • Tijah checks in and lets you know what needs attention
  • Track who owes you money
  • Faster responses
Future streams
Ecosystem
Unlocked at scale
  • Trade data licensing to FMCG brands and suppliers
  • Helping traders access working capital loans
  • Supplier marketplace referral fees
Why this model works at scale
Users upgrade naturally
Free users upgrade when their business outgrows the free tier. They upgrade because the product is useful to them, and they stay because it's part of how they run their business.
Word of mouth
Tijah lives on WhatsApp, where traders already organise in co-operatives and market groups. A trader who benefits tells her neighbour.
A path to credit
After 6-12 months of records, traders have a financial history for the first time. This opens the door to partnerships with lenders.
Market Opportunity

A large market
that nobody is serving well

41M+
Informal businesses in Nigeria
Nigeria has the largest informal economy in Africa. These businesses employ more people than any other sector.
NBS MSME Survey, 2020 (39.6M, growing)
~$140B
Nigerian informal economy
About 58% of GDP, and most of it is still invisible to digital tools and financial services.
NBS GDP rebasing 2024; Moniepoint, 2025
95%
WhatsApp penetration
The highest rate in the world among Nigeria's internet users. It's already on every trader's phone.
DataReportal Digital 2024: Nigeria
Nigeria is the first market, with 12 million traders and a $140 billion informal economy. The product is designed to expand across the continent. Informal trade across sub-Saharan Africa is worth over $700 billion.
IMF Working Paper WP/17/156; World Bank SSA GDP data, 2024 (~36% of $1.98T SSA GDP)
The Founder

The right founder
for this problem

Mfoniso Ukwak, Founder and CEO of Tijah
Mfoniso Ukwak
Founder & CEO
Mfoniso spent 11 years at Google leading Strategy and Operations across EMEA, and most recently led AI transformation for African nonprofits through Google.org's Gen AI Accelerator. She holds an MBA from Carnegie Mellon, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from USC, and a B.Eng. from Ahmadu Bello University.
View LinkedIn profile

Interested in
backing Tijah?

We're building business support tools for Africa's informal traders and looking for investors who share this mission.

Reach out to invest → See the business model