Fixing the “pilot trap” for African innovations

The “pilot trap” is a quiet graveyard for African innovations. A solution is tested with 200 farmers, a community skincare brand is launched with an NGO, a new low-cost device is trialled in a handful of clinics. There are photos, reports and press releases and then nothing.

In most cases, the pilots actually worked. Farmers saw yield gains; women sold more soap; nurses liked the device. But once the funding window closes, the programme team moves on and the innovators are left without a clear market channel. They are visible to donors, but invisible to buyers.

The architecture of the trap

Several structural issues feed the pilot trap:

• Procurement blindness: procurement teams rarely see local pilots as serious suppliers. Their systems are designed to work with large, often imported brands.
• Data locked in PDFs: success metrics, product details and contact information are buried in reports, not in live, searchable catalogues.
• No neutral marketplace: even when products are real and verified, there is no shared place where NGOs, clinics, co ops and companies can find them side by side.
• Limited founder time: founders are pulled between production, compliance and fundraising; few have the capacity to build and maintain full-scale e commerce infrastructure.

What OpenMarket Global changes

OpenMarket Global is designed as the missing market layer that sits between pilots and procurement:

• Shared discovery layer: instead of living in isolated programme pages, products, businesses and NGO portfolios live in one searchable catalogue.
• Verification as a service: we work with labs, field trials and quality programmes so that products can be tagged as tested, trusted or in pilot, not just marketed.
• Institution ready profiles: each listing surfaces details procurement teams care about: category, geography, WhatsApp contact, partner NGO and where the product has been used.

Case pattern: from one off pilot to repeat orders

Consider a Liberian distributor of clinic supplies that participates in an NGO outreach programme. During the project, they deliver first aid packs and bandages to ten rural clinics. Everyone is happy; the report is written; the project ends.

On OpenMarket Global, this does not have to be the end:

1. The distributor is listed as a verified supplier under Health / Medical, with their product range and WhatsApp contact.
2. The NGO project appears as a partner on their profile, signalling that supplies have been used in field conditions.
3. Other NGOs, clinics and even government units can discover and contact the same supplier without running a brand new RFP from scratch.

What partners can do differently

Instead of letting pilots be the end of the story, partners can:

• Plan for market entry from day one: define how products will be listed and discovered beyond the project.
• Publish supplier portfolios on OpenMarket Global as part of project closure, not just a PDF report.
• Co fund verification and onboarding so that more SMEs and cooperatives have the minimum data quality needed for procurement.

Why global action should act now

Without a shift in how pilots transition to markets, billions of dollars in “innovation spending” will continue to produce short lived stories instead of long lived suppliers. By helping build common market infrastructure, global actors can:

• Convert more pilots into real, revenue earning companies.
• Strengthen local supply chains instead of defaulting to imports.
• See a clearer, live picture of where their support is turning into sustainable businesses.

OpenMarket Global invites development agencies, foundations and corporate partners to co design this layer: to make sure that the next pilot is not just a story, but a supplier someone can buy from with one click or one message.

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