How it works Ways to book Pricing For riders Developers Get started
For merchants

Everything a shop needs to know before signing up

No monthly fee, no contract, no minimum volume. You pay per delivery, you see the price before it goes out, and you can cancel free until a rider has collected it.

Create a merchant account See the rates

Getting set up

Sign up with your business details from the web dashboard. You are asked for the basics — the business name, where you trade from, and a phone number we can reach you on.

An account is reviewed by a person before it goes live. That is deliberate: riders are being asked to collect packages from real premises, so we check the premises are real. Once you are approved you can book immediately.

Then connect the channels you want

  • WhatsApp — register the number you will send from and confirm the six-digit code we message you. Only verified numbers can create deliveries on your account, so nobody else can book in your name.
  • Telegram — generate a link from your account and open it. That pairs your Telegram to your business, and you can unpair it whenever you like.
  • The merchant app — sign in with the same account on iOS or Android. It remembers you, so you are not logging in every morning.
  • The API — issue a key and post deliveries from your own system. See the developer guide.

All five routes are the same account. Book on WhatsApp in the morning and check the same delivery on the web after lunch — it is one delivery, one tracking ID, one history.

Ways to book

Book from wherever you already are

Most shops never open a dashboard. So Kova meets you in the apps you keep open all day — and every route creates the same delivery, with the same tracking, at the same price.

WhatsApp

Type one message. Get a tracking ID back.

Send DELIVERY on the first line, then the details on theirs. Kova creates it and replies with the tracking ID.

PICKUP_ADDRESS
Where the rider collects
DROPOFF_NAME
Who is receiving it
DROPOFF_PHONE
Their number
DROPOFF_ADDRESS
Where it goes
ITEM
What is in the package

Later, STATUS KOVA-12345 tells you where it is.

You register the number once from your account and confirm it with a code. Only verified numbers can create deliveries, so nobody can book in your name.

Telegram bot

No format to remember — the bot asks.

Where should the rider collect from?
Type the address Send a pin
Pickup set to East Legon, Accra. Who’s receiving it, and where?
Confirm Discard

Drop a location pin instead of typing an address and Kova resolves it to a street for the rider. Check status or cancel from the same menu.

Merchant app & web

Five guided steps, or one sentence.

1 Pickup point
2 Who’s receiving it
3 What’s in the package
4 Same day or next day
5 Confirm the price

In a hurry? Type the whole thing in plain words — “Pizza from QuickBites East Legon to John on 0240000000 in Madina” — and Kova fills the form in for you to check.

Open the web dashboard →

API

For shops running their own storefront.

POST /deliveries
X-API-Key: ···

{
  "deliveryType": "SAME_DAY",
  "packageSize": "MEDIUM",
  "pickup": { "address": "East Legon", ··· },
  "dropoff": { "address": "Madina", ··· },
  "recipient": { "name": "John Doe", ··· }
}

Register a webhook and Kova pushes every status change to your system as it happens, instead of you polling for it.

Read the developer guide →

What you pay

A fee per delivery, worked out from the distance and whether you chose same-day or next-day. The first 20km are covered by the base fee — GH₵35 next-day, GH₵50 same-day — and anything beyond that is charged per kilometre at a rate that drops for long runs.

You see the exact fee before you confirm. Nothing is dispatched, and nothing is charged, until you have looked at the number and said yes. Full rates are on the pricing page.

Running deliveries day to day

Watching one move

Every delivery has a named status rather than a vague “on its way”: pending, assigned, picked up, in transit, delivered, confirmed. You can see where the rider is on a map, and message them on the delivery itself so the conversation stays attached to the job.

Cancelling

Free, from wherever you booked, any time before the rider has collected the package. Once it is picked up it is in motion and cancelling is no longer possible — contact support and we will sort out what can be done.

Looking back

Your delivery history is kept in full, with every status change and its timestamp. That is what you need when a customer asks what happened to an order last Tuesday.

When something goes wrong

  • Nobody accepts it. The delivery is marked unassigned rather than sitting there silently. Our team is alerted and places it with a rider by hand.
  • It fails on the road. The rider reports it from the app with a reason, which is recorded against the delivery. Our team follows up with you rather than waiting for you to notice.
  • You need a person. Email bernard@kovaonline.com. For a normal delivery you should never have to — that is the point.

Get your first delivery moving

Sign up as a merchant, and you can book from the web, the app, WhatsApp, or Telegram the same day. There’s no monthly fee — you pay for the deliveries you send.

Create a merchant account Talk to someone first

Delivering in Accra, Ghana. Somewhere else? Tell us where and we’ll let you know when we reach you.