How a Nigerian Entrepreneur Is Transforming Cross-Border Logistics Across Africa
What if the daily movement of people across Africa could be harnessed to solve one of the continent's most persistent challenges—expensive and inefficient cross-border shipping? This question became the foundation for a groundbreaking Nigerian-led venture that is reshaping how goods move between African nations.
From Personal Frustration to Innovative Solution
Dominion Paul Ladi's journey began with a simple yet frustrating experience: attempting to send a small parcel from Lagos to Kigali. She discovered that shipping this item within Africa cost significantly more than sending the same package to London, despite numerous daily flights between Lagos and Kigali traveling with empty luggage space. This stark contrast, where sending goods from Nigeria or Rwanda to the United States or United Kingdom could cost less than twenty dollars, highlighted what she described as a deeply unjust system.
This personal frustration evolved into LadX, a logistics platform that transforms everyday travelers into a distributed delivery network. By utilizing unused luggage capacity, LadX creates income opportunities for travelers while providing affordable shipping options for senders. The platform addresses what Dominion identified as a fragmented and inefficient industry that disproportionately burdens African businesses and individuals.
Building a Trust-Based Logistics Ecosystem
LadX operates on a simple but powerful premise: connecting travelers with people who need to send goods across borders. However, executing this vision required building robust systems for trust, safety, and accountability—elements often missing from informal kilo trade networks that already exist across the continent.
Security became the foundational concern for LadX's operating model. Dominion emphasized that the platform never wants to put travelers in danger, acknowledging historical risks where people have faced serious consequences for carrying items for others. To address this, LadX implemented comprehensive Know Your Customer (KYC) processes for both senders and travelers, established package verification protocols, and partnered with aviation security providers to ensure compliance.
The platform positions itself as a trust layer between senders and travelers, eliminating the need for direct trust between parties. Early assumptions proved that paying travelers alone wasn't sufficient—what people truly needed was assurance in the platform itself. Through support from ALX Ventures, Dominion gained frameworks to refine her business model and build systems capable of operating reliably across multiple markets, focusing on resilience rather than just growth.
Tangible Impact and Operational Growth
Today, LadX operates across eight African countries, collaborates with over 97 dispatch riders, and has moved more than three tonnes of goods across borders. In just four months, the platform transported over 500 kilograms of items specifically between Lagos and Kigali. These numbers represent more than statistical success—they reflect created income, crossed borders, and slowly rewritten systems.
The early operational phase was far from glamorous, with Dominion personally visiting airports at midnight and early morning hours to collect items and ensure safe deliveries. Every shipment provided valuable data, and every mistake informed subsequent decisions. This real-time learning process became integral to LadX's development, allowing the platform to adapt quickly without relying on historical industry data.
Creating Broader Opportunities Across Africa
LadX has established partnerships with travel agencies and airlines including RwandAir and Kenya Airways, creating income streams for travelers and dispatch riders across pilot markets. Some of the most meaningful validation came from successful cross-border deliveries of critical items, sometimes including medication, demonstrating the platform's real-world impact beyond commercial parcels.
Dominion's journey reflects a broader shift among African entrepreneurs who are building functional systems within existing infrastructure realities rather than waiting for perfect conditions. As she notes, ALX Ventures provided the system, structure, and support needed to transform passion into a venture with genuine impact. For LadX, scale represents more than growth—it embodies trust, resilience, and dignity operating at continental levels.
What began as one founder's frustration has evolved into a distributed logistics system delivering goods, income, and access across Africa. This innovative approach demonstrates how African-led solutions can address continent-specific challenges while creating economic opportunities for countless individuals participating in the network.
