Comprised mainly of executive members of the previous committee, the Ogrogami panel, led by Shomi Kaiser, won eight out of nine seats at the association board of the e-Commerce Association of Bangladesh (e-CAB) election held on Saturday,
The association, which represents the country's fast-growing digital commerce sector with 1,700 e-commerce companies as registered members, concluded its first ever election since the association’s inception seven years back.
Kaiser, the founder of Dhanshiri Digital, is expected to lead the new committee this time as well.
According to AHM Bazlur Rahman, member of the election commission formed to hold the polls, around 611 votes were casted out of 795 voters with 76.9% of the votes casted.
The association chose its new leaders for the term 2022-24 through an election for the first time, as the previous terms saw nine seats at the association board being given to candidates without any contest.
According to sources, Ambareen Reza of food delivery giant foodpanda, a new Ogrogami panel member, succeeded in landing the highest votes among 31 candidates across three panels.
Reza is the co-founder of foodpanda Bangladesh and as a managing director, she led the platform to take the number one spot in terms of both deliveries and revenue generation.
According to Shomi Kaiser, also the current e-CAB president, the Ogrogami Panel has got some new talents who are ready to contribute to the industry after their remarkable success in their own businesses, and looks forward to accomplishing efforts taken to grow the e-commerce industry to $5 billion by 2024 while creating a million jobs.
The association's secretary general Abdul Wahed Tomal, founder of Comjagat Technologies and vice-president Sahab Uddin Shipon, representing the pioneering online pharmacy Diabetes Store, were also in the winning panel alongside Nasima Akter, founder of Reverie Corporation and the f-commerce platform Women and e-commerce (WE), along with other existing executive committee members.
On the other hand, other new members joining the panel consist of digital content and photography firm Focus Frame's founder Ruhul Kuddus Chhotan, and leading smart logistics firm Paperfly's founder Shahriar Hasan.
Speaking to Dhaka Tribune, Shahab Uddin, vice president of e-CAB, said the current committee had many successes and achievements in the e-commerce sector and the members of the association had shown their confidence on the many initiatives taken and many others to be taken in growing the digital commerce sector.
"We were first to bring the escrow concept under attention during a meeting at the Prime Minister's Office in 2019 which the central bank was later instructed to execute. We also assisted in formulating the standard operation procedure for digital commerce following the scams by rogue businesses in the sector,” he also said.
He further pointed out the committee had taken initiatives to resume operations and logistics support in sale and delivery of grocery items during the pandemic lockdowns.
A total of 31 candidates comprising members in three separate panels competed for a total of nine seats at the association's board.
Other than Ogrogami, "The Change Makers" and "Oikko" panels also competed, each having their different manifestos.
