Route-to-Market & Informal Economy Training Course

Over five practical days, participants move from understanding the logic of the informal economy to designing a complete, costed route-to-market plan. The course covers product disaggregation and unit economics, the kiosk network as a supply chain, pricing for daily cash flow, building sales velocity, and integrating mobile money and B2B ordering platforms — combining analysis, real African case studies and hands-on strategy development.

This Route-to-Market Training Course teaches FMCG, agribusiness and distribution teams how to sell profitably in Africa's informal economy — the kiosk-driven "kidogo" markets where most consumer goods are actually bought and sold. Conventional strategies built for supermarkets and monthly shoppers consistently fail in informal settlements, where consumption is daily, fragmented and price-sensitive. This course decodes the informal economy as a sophisticated distribution system and shows you how to win within it.

By the end of this route-to-market training course, participants will be able to:

1. 01Explain the structure, logic and scale of the informal economy as a distribution system.
2. 02Analyse how products disaggregate into micro-units and the economics behind it.
3. 03Map the kiosk and last-mile distribution network and its key actors.
4. 04Design pricing strategies aligned to daily cash flow and entry price points.
5. 05Develop route-to-market strategies that prioritise velocity and penetration over basket size.
6. 06Evaluate the roles of micro-distributors, informal wholesalers and boda logistics.
7. 07Integrate digital tools — mobile money, ordering platforms and data — into informal distribution.
8. 08Build a practical, costed go-to-market plan for a base-of-the-pyramid market.

This training is tailored for:

• FMCG and agribusiness commercial, sales and trade-marketing managers.
• Distribution, logistics and supply-chain professionals.
• Public-sector officials in trade, industrialisation, MSME and cooperatives.
• NGO/INGO practitioners working on market systems and value chains.
• Financial-sector staff designing products for retailers and distributors.
• Social enterprises and impact investors in consumer and agri sectors.
• Market-research and consumer-insights professionals.
• Entrepreneurs and SMEs entering low-income or informal markets.

The course is highly interactive and practitioner-led, combining concise lectures with real African case studies, group work and applied exercises. Participants undertake market-mapping and product-redesign workshops, role plays of distributor and retailer engagement, and (where feasible) a guided market immersion. Peer learning and continuous development of a personal action plan ensure participants leave with a ready-to-apply strategy.

Organizations that invest in this training for their teams will benefit from:

• Stronger penetration into previously unreachable low-income markets
• More efficient last-mile distribution and lower cost-to-serve
• Product and packaging portfolios aligned to real consumer affordability
• Higher product turnover and revenue velocity
• Improved demand forecasting using informal-channel data
• Reduced over-reliance on saturated formal retail channels
• Distribution partnerships rooted in community networks
• Durable competitive advantage at the base of the pyramid

Participants that enroll in this training will benefit from:

• Ability to design route-to-market strategies for informal markets
• Confidence engaging micro-retailers, distributors, and wholesalers
• Sharper commercial and analytical skills (velocity, penetration, turnover)
• Cross-sector perspective bridging formal and informal economies
• A practical toolkit for pricing and packaging decisions
• Enhanced credibility as a base-of-the-pyramid market specialist
• A valuable peer network across sectors
• A completed go-to-market action plan to apply at work
• Stronger career positioning in the fast-growing African consumer market

At Strategic Revenue Africa, our certification goes beyond proof of attendance—it represents practical competence and measurable capability. Upon successful completion of our training programs, participants are awarded a Certificate of Completion from Strategic Revenue Africa, recognizing their ability to apply acquired knowledge in real-world settings. As an organization focused on architecting sustainable revenue and strengthening organizational performance, our certifications signal that participants are equipped with skills that drive results, not just theory.