The African market is largely dominated by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Sub-Saharan Africa alone houses over 44 million SMEs responsible for an estimated 80% of jobs across the continent. Many of these businesses are either unbanked or rarely use traditional banking systems even if they had bank accounts. But fintech platforms like VoguePay are making payment processes seamless for SMEs across the continent.
In this article, Dr Marliyyah A. Mahmood the Chief Experience Officer, VoguePay, discusses the potential of Vogue 3.0 in today’s extremely competitive business world, and its utmost significance in carrying out cross-border transactions in order to ensure improved e-commerce transaction success rates with more business support tools.
Highlighting how Nigerian SMEs still struggle to manage their businesses without the proper fintech tools, she says, “with the Paradigm Shift from analogue to digital technology, Nigerian business owners still struggle with the right tools to manage their businesses. SMEs are Nigeria’s greatest employers of labour, but they lack access to fundamental services that would benefit their companies.”
With an ever-increasing number of SMEs adopting, it in their transactions to improve performance, fintech has opened up new frontiers in the banking industry and mobile phone technology. The impact of Fintech on the expansion of SMEs is unclear; nevertheless, the majority of SME owners conduct their daily business using fintech rather than traditional banking.
According to reports by PwC Nigeria, SMEs contribute to 48% of the country’s GDP and account for 96% of businesses and 84% of employment. However, there are a number of issues unique to the African continent that has slowed the rates of financial inclusion in both the official and informal sectors that FinTech companies were hoping to boost.
“VoguePay has overcome operational difficulties by bolstering our talent pool and working with authorities to always maintain compliance. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently confirmed this by granting us the switching and processing license, the most coveted payment license in the nation. This license allows for faster transactions, improved security, and also gives us the ability to unlock and develop innovative products to spur economic growth and financial inclusion.”- Dr Marliyyah A. Mahmood, CXO VoguePay.
Over the years, the Nigerian SMEs sector has drawn in foreign capital, and it continues to hold enormous promise for keeping the region at the top of the global economy. Other African nations must investigate the effects of FinTech firms on financial inclusion in both the formal and informal sectors of the largest commercial cities in Nigeria, the challenges they face, and how their strategies to achieve a higher financial inclusion percentage may be hindered because they are not exempt from this.
SME payments have increased at a compound annual growth rate of 28% over the previous three years as a result of fintech companies addressing SMEs’ need for frictionless and cost-effective payments.
For instance, the online payments company VoguePay has created a straightforward plug-and-play solution that enables businesses to start receiving payments immediately after signing up. Additionally, to help SMEs keep organized, they offer value-added services on billing, accounting integration, and transaction dashboards. Over 60,000 businesses have signed up to use the VoguePay platform as of right now.
It is said in the year 2018 VoguePay launched a digital banking platform, VoguePay3.0, for Small and Medium Enterprises. The Chief Executive Officer, VoguePay, Michael Simeon, said at a press conference held in Lagos that the platform would simplify the way businesses could send and receive payment from local and international customers. He also stated that the platform would allow merchants to accept payment in dollars, Euros, Rand, Cedi, naira and bitcoin.
The platform was developed with a cross-currency payment gateway that enables VoguePay to offer local businesses the capacity to facilitate cross-border transactions easily and securely in order to improve their revenues. While servicing more than 60,000 merchants in North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, she pointed out that the company had developed over time to become the fastest-growing fintech startup in West Africa that had not risen outside capital.
SMEs using VoguePay3.0 are enjoying competitive transaction fees while receiving payments from their customers through multiple channels such as cash, card payment, direct bank transfers, QR codes and bitcoin.
Dr Marliyyah notes that as a company, “VoguePay has overcome operational difficulties by bolstering our talent pool and working with authorities to always maintain compliance. The Central Bank of Nigeria recently confirmed this by granting us the switching and processing license, the most coveted payment license in the nation. This license allows for faster transactions, improved security, and also gives us the ability to unlock and develop innovative products to spur economic growth and financial inclusion.”
Finally, Fintechs have made an impact in three main ways: boosting economic activity, producing a multiplier effect, and accelerating the achievement of development objectives. Expanding revenue sources and luring foreign direct investment to the nation will have the biggest effects on the economy. Through the digitization of financial services, the SME sector has generated greater productivity, capital, and labour hours, which boosts the economy.
The growth of the fintech industry in Nigeria has been aided by tools provided for business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplaces, such as payment integration on social media platforms. SMEs in Nigeria who want to expand their operations must capitalize on this achievement.
