In a time when inflation is rising faster than incomes and basic needs are harder to afford, one Nigerian startup is betting on something ancient and rebuilding it with modern technology.
Ifunanya Ofodile is on a mission to digitize barter and make it a functional, scalable, community-powered system for everyday life through are newly founded business – TradebyBartr.
“People have more value than cash, but the world has conditioned us to forget. TradebyBartr is simply restoring the truth, that your goods, skills, and services can get you what you need,” Ofodile says.
Solving old problems with new lens
While global platforms focus on buying, selling or borrowing, very few products meaningfully support direct exchange.
According to Ofodile, that gap is glaring in Africa, where informal trade, skill-swaps and “help-your-neighbor” culture have always been part of survival.
TradebyBartr captures this cultural logic and upgrades it with technology.
Users can: list items or skills they have, request items or skills they need, make counteroffers, swap multiple items in a single trade, use “Bartr Credits” earned from daily app tasks for boosted visibility and explore location-based trades, starting from their LGA
“It is not just an app, it is rebuilding the sense of community we grew up with,” Ofodile explains.
“When you lacked something, your neighbors came through. We’re making that reliability digital, safe, and scalable.”
Designing for real problems, not vanity tech
Ofodile, known for her ability to connect insight to execution, says the platform was not built from hype but from studying the lived realities of Nigerian and African consumers.
Her background leading market research, user insights and product development across multiple sectors shaped the foundation of the product.
“We built TradebyBartr from first principles,” she says.
“What do people actually struggle with? What can we solve sustainably? How do we create a system that lowers cost of living without needing cash? Barter was the logical, efficient answer.”
But even with all its features, TradebyBartr is still in its earliest form. The real story is ahead.
Ofodile believes the platform will eventually become a parallel economy powered by value, not cash; one where a single trade can trigger a chain of opportunities, and where everyday people reclaim control over how they survive, exchange and thrive.
According to Ofodile, “Nigeria has never had a value marketplace built for its realities. That is what TradebyBartr is building, one trade at a time.”
“When TradebyBartr succeeds, it will not just change how people swap goods. It could quietly rewrite how communities support themselves in a future where money alone no longer stretches far enough.”
“Judging by the momentum building around the system, this might just be the beginning of a new kind of digital economy; one born from something we have always had: each other. The movement is only getting started.”
