Visa is partnering with Flocash to introduce Flostore to help small businesses across Africa accept digital payments. It will also allow the businesses to manage supplies and access financial services across Africa. The Flostore solution consists of an integration of the Visa digital wallet and Flocash’s pan-African payment platform.
In addition to Flostore, Flocash and Visa will bring the element of analytics, bookkeeping and reconciliation to small businesses. Through Visa’s dynamic underwriting capabilities that include buying now pay later structures.
“Visa is committed to expanding the digitization of payments across Africa. With partners like Flocash, our goal is to enable African businesses to access our payments ecosystem and technologies to enable them to innovatively and efficiently serve their customers. This partnership with Flocash, as well as the launch of Flostore, are important steps towards achieving this goal.”
Corine Mbiaketcha, Vice President and General Manager for East Africa at Visa.
SMEs according to the International Finance Corporation (IFC) account for 90% of all businesses in Africa. But they have an annual financing gap of over US $136 billion. A digitized SME sector will unlock the huge market potential of the African continent underpinned by rapid population growth.
Through digitization, SMEs can use their digital footprint to tap into both traditional and alternative sources of funding. To expand commerce while banks lower operating costs as they increase their revenue base. Digitization of the lending process enables banks to streamline their inefficient processes for SME lending and deliver value to their customers. 82% of small and micro business respondents to Visa’s annual outlook survey in 2022 indicated a preference for digital payment options.
With a Flostore Tap2phone, small businesses will be able to turn their existing mobile devices into payment acceptance terminals. Tap2phone is an essential and cost-effective mechanism for developing digital payment infrastructure in developing markets.
“Flocash has grown significantly as a travel payments processor over the last few years. We are thrilled to partner with them to build innovative payment solutions that reduce friction in commerce for merchants in East Africa,” Mbiaketcha adds.
On the other hand, the CyberSource Payment Gateway technology incorporates all the safety protocols in place to give customers peace of mind as they transact online. With a design to provide increased fraud protection, minimize cardholder friction, and increase the completion of sales, leading to a better experience for all parties involved. This helps both merchants and issuers detect and avoid fraud more effectively.
“Visa is a great partner to scale Flocash’s pan-African payment platform and develop this critical area of African commerce that can offer enormous continent-wide economic development opportunities.”
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Ecobank, the pan-African banking group, is partnering with Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub and Ecobank Academy to train and equip Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) across sub-Saharan Africa. The training will provide SMEs with digital skills and knowledge to reach their full potential. As well as play a vital role in driving Africa’s economic resurgence.
SMEs have been significantly impacted by the COVID19 pandemic with its attendant lockdowns and disruptions to supply chains, plummeting sales, lost revenue and operational challenges. In response to feedback from our customers, Ecobank through its Commercial Banking Segment is helping business owners close the digital skills gap within their chosen fields and improve the digital capabilities of their employees.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has turbocharged the shift towards digital”, says Josephine Anan-Ankomah, Group Executive, Commercial Banking for the Ecobank Group. “It is essential that businesses adapt so that they are able to compete effectively in today’s rapidly changing landscape. Ecobank’s Commercial Banking is committed to supporting SMEs across our pan-African footprint. Through this partnership with Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub and Ecobank Academy we are offering training to equip business owners and their employees with the digital skills that they need to stay connected to their customers. We are intent on ensuring that our SME customers remain relevant, grow and succeed in the post-COVID-19 era”, she adds.
SMEs have been invited to register here for the upcoming webinar taking place on July 26. The Global Skilling initiative program is available on an online portal where SMEs can register, and start their learning journey for any of the 10 in-demand skill sets (Customer Services; Digital Marketing; Financial Analysis; Graphic Design; IT Support/Help Desk; Project Management; Sales; Data Analysis; IT Administration; And Software Development). They can complete the virtual programme at their own pace and at times that work best for them. The programme runs until the 31st of December 2021.
Ibrahim Youssry, Regional General Manager, Middle East and Africa – Multi market region at Microsoft says Microsoft is “committed to building digital talent pipelines to support the workforce of the future. And our Global Skilling Initiative is an important part of this process. But beyond the future workforce, digital talent will also support more local innovation, as developers and entrepreneurs are empowered to create locally relevant solutions that best address the challenges and needs of African countries. Startups and SMEs play a critical role in innovation, economic growth and job creation, and expanded access to digital skills is one of the key steps needed to foster a successful economic recovery.”
The Global Skilling Initiative is just another example of how Ecobank wants to help SMEs reach their full potential and play a vital role in driving Africa’s economic resurgence. Other support initiatives for SMEs include:
The Ecobank Marketplace eCommerce solution for businesses to grow their sales on digital marketplaces
And the Ellevate programme to provide women-led/owned/focused businesses with loans, cash management solutions, training and mentoring opportunities.
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Standard Bank and Microsoft announce a strategic partnership to accelerate the digital transformation of Africa’s largest financial institution and further drive the continent’s growth. The Bank’s growing investment in the Microsoft Cloud will enable the innovation, efficiencies, and resilience required to respond to market dynamics and customer needs.
This partnership builds on the 30-year relationship between the two companies and involves migrating workloads, applications, and platforms to Microsoft Azure to drive organisational efficiencies, as well as workforce collaboration with Azure, PowerApps, Workplace Analytics and Microsoft Teams.
“Investing in the cloud will allow Standard Bank to achieve its strategy to transform from a traditional financial services company into a digital platform company, providing financial services, plus ancillary and associated services. We have adopted a cloud-first strategy, underpinned by end-to-end security and data-driven insights that will enable transformation with tangible results,” says Standard Bank Group Chief Executive, Sim Tshabalala.
“Standard Bank’s cloud-first strategy underlines the growing momentum in financial services to deliver differentiated experiences that today’s customers expect,” said Judson Althoff, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Worldwide Commercial Business. “As a long-standing technology partner, we are pleased to collaborate with Standard Bank in realizing this strategy and in becoming Africa’s future-first financial services firm through digital skilling-focused initiatives that will expand economic opportunity for young people across Africa.”
As part of the partnership, the companies will also:
Establish the African Digital Foundry (The Foundry), a strategic alliance, for Standard Bank and Microsoft to collaborate to co-create unique solutions through new technology to meet the financial needs of Africa’s consumers. Through the Foundry, the companies aspire to reach 100 million customers in Africa over the next five years.
Bring together their resources and know-how to provide youth with the relevant digital skills needed to secure future-ready jobs and equip Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) with digital skills and capabilities so that they can take advantage of the growing shift to digital technologies.
The African Digital Foundry (The Foundry)
Standard Bank and Microsoft, through the Foundry, will co-create and execute joint go-to-market digital services related to trade, payment, and risk-based (lending and insurance) solutions. They will also develop ecosystems enabling digital trading to facilitate Africa’s growth.
“The Foundry is a digital initiative established in Africa, for Africans, to address the unique challenges the continent faces with customised innovations, services and solutions,” says Tshabalala. “The partnership will further enhance and create ongoing collaboration between our firms around co-engineering solutions for African consumers’ unique needs.”
Skills and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) Development
Harnessing the power and reach of both organisations, the partnership will also drive digital skills development, boost youth employment, and accelerate the growth of SMEs on the African continent.
Both organisations believe that digital transformation represents an opportunity for the continent to leap ahead, taking a leading role in enabling economic and societal growth in Africa.
Microsoft and Standard Bank will leverage their combined research, industry, partner and start-up programmes to impact the continent – where similar opportunities and challenges exist – using technology such as mixed reality and artificial intelligence.
“Continuing to build on the partnership is part of the ongoing journey that Standard Bank and Microsoft are on to invest in digital transformation as the enabler of meaningful and tangible innovation. Our journey is underpinned by collaborative efforts to develop, scale and roll-out digital solutions that will deliver personalised services to 100 million Africans and by meeting their unique and evolving needs and demands,” says Tshabalala.
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Soromfe Uzomah, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft 4Afrika, shares on how SMEs can leverage cloud computing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Global Pandemic
The global impact occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic not only on public health but on business, cannot be underestimated. Policymakers and stakeholders must thus consider the impact such global disruption of trade poses especially to small and medium businesses (SMEs). Anticipating and mitigating for the impact of unforeseen global events on supply chain management is crucial if SMEs, who are reliant on goods from an affected area, are to survive.
Due to their size and lack of resources, SMEs are often the most vulnerable to unforeseen events and threats. These SMEs also often do not have a plan in place to deal with supply chain disruptions. Yet, in Africa, SMEs are important drivers of economic growth. Accounting for up to 90 percent of businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, an SME Initiatives advisory by the International Finance Corporation reports.
Regrettably, one thing clearly emerging from the global Covid-19 pandemic is that SMEs’ supply chains from hub regions across the globe have been severely disrupted on an unprecedented level, and with an unpredictable timeframe for resolution as the virus continues to impact industrial production. Companies that would usually import items to sell, particularly SMEs, are unable to continue with business as usual because of trade disruptions. So, the question we must ask is, how do these SMEs make their supply chain anti-fragile?
Cloud computing solutions
Digital commerce platforms and advances in fields like digital analytics and artificial intelligence can significantly help to mitigate the risks of supply chain fragility. Flexible cloud computing solutions, data collection and analysis and automation software can all contribute to the success of SMEs in the digital era. Cloud computing also gives businesses the ability to scale, cost-effectively, to new markets. This is particularly beneficial for SMEs, who often lacked the resources or infrastructure to expand before. Partnerships with companies like Jumia in Kenya and Nigeria has, for instance, made Microsoft products available to SMEs in local currency.
The challenge now is to establish new supply chain avenues within Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) can play the role of unlocking innovation, growth and productivity on the continent, especially for its SME segment, by translating spending power into economic development.
To date, intra-African trade is relatively limited; UNCTAD, the main UN body dealing with trade, said it made up only 10.2 percent of the continent’s total trade in 2010. Between 2010 and 2015, fuels represented more than half of Africa’s exports to non-African countries, while manufactured goods made up only 18 percent of exports to the rest of the world.
By creating a single continental market for goods and services, the member states of the African Union hope to boost trade between African countries. Some studies have shown that by creating a pan-African market, intra-Africa trade could increase by about 52% by 2022, although these predictions will likely be revised downwards due to the pandemic’s influence on the local and global economy. Regardless, better market access creates economies of scale. Combined with appropriate industrial policies, this contributes to a diversified industrial sector and growth in manufacturing value added.
Digital Platforms
Digital platforms and the adoption of mobile technology act as effective conduits for the exchange of value, and by aggregating demand across the continent, these platforms give small and medium businesses opportunities to access new markets, and to offer or identify goods and services previously limited by location constraints and marketing costs. These platforms create a diversification effect that boosts the robustness of supply chains.
Start-ups like CoinAfrique, which is based in Dakar, Senegal provide access to markets for SMEs through their free classifieds platform for new and used products. Which allows users to make money selling what they do not use and find bargains. The app currently has over one million downloads – and the team are now looking to scale to 10 million active users across francophone Africa. Other platforms, including Biz4Afrika, provide entrepreneurs and SMEs alike with access to valuable business information and resources, finance and markets, providing a boost to small business growth.
A powerful force expediting cross-border trade is the accelerating progress of digital technology in areas spanning from trade logistics, automated processing and e-payments to immediate access and exchange of trade information and documentation.
Cash flow is always a challenge for SMEs, no more so than when trade is constrained due to external factors. It’s always tricky for SMEs to balance working capital requirements with inventory availability. The growth of the fintech sector effectively simplifies any transaction challenges by creating multiple payment channels.
Microsoft 4Afrika
Many fintech start-ups across Africa aim to promote access for SMEs to financing options that were previously not available to them, which also opens opportunities for trade on a larger scale than was previously possible. As an example, Microsoft 4Afrika has partnered with African fintech start-ups, including Flutterwave in Nigeria and the MoVAS Group in East Africa, to open access to financing for SMEs. Diversifying and strengthening supply chains is crucial for SMEs to survive and flourish. When we consider that by 2035, the International Monetary Fund forecasts that Africa will have added more working-age people to our workforce than the rest of the world’s regions combined, it’s essential that we have a thriving SME sector to absorb these workers and help grow economies across the continent.
Microsoft will be empowering about two thousand micro, small and medium-sized businesses at Techpoint SME Clinic this year.
4Afrika, Microsoft’s business and market development engine in Africa, is supporting the training of small businesses on ways to automate their business processes and use technology to scale. Techpoint SME Clinic is scheduled to take place in Lagos, Nigeria on 29th February 2020.
Microsoft shares, it is partnering with Techpoint as their SME clinic vision aligns with the 4Afrika vision. That is “to turn today’s ideas from Africa through the power of technology into solutions“. The company will provide SMEs with digital transformation, scalability and sustainability opportunities.
Amongst others, the SMEs will learn; how to take a business online the right way. How to market products and services online and how to get loans and funding for business.
Head of Strategic Partnerships at Microsoft 4Afrika, Soromfe Uzomah notes SMEs are most in need of six things. Access to finance, markets, affordable technology, information and skills and services. These he says are essential for their scalability and sustainability.
“Together with our partners, we provide SMEs access to all of these. Through initiatives such as Microsoft for Startups, MySkills4Afrika, Microsoft Virtual Academy, Biz4Afrika and Interns 4Afrika. On our educational platforms, our training content is tailored to suit the different growth stages of an SME.”
Microsoft says the 4Afrika initiative has reached 1.7 million small and medium businesses and supported more than 300 startups.
Do you run an SME in Nigeria? Click to register and learn how to accelerate your business in 2020 with the power of technology.
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