Flocash, a fintech platform, and Visa have partnered to promote digital capabilities for African SMEs.

Visa, the global leader in digital payments, is collaborating with Flocash FT, a fintech platform, to promote digital capabilities for African SMEs via digital payments, supplier solutions, and access to financial services.

Flocash, which began operations in Kenya in 2013, is a leading provider of payment technology and processing services to consumers, businesses, and financial institutions. The company is disrupting the financial sector by digitizing and automating the delivery and distribution of basic financial services in order to empower small businesses in 60 Middle Eastern and African countries.

“Visa is committed to expanding payment digitization across Africa.” With partners like Flocash, our goal is to provide African businesses with access to our payments ecosystem and technologies, allowing them to serve their customers in new and innovative ways. This collaboration with Flocash, as well as the launch of Flostore, are significant steps toward achieving this goal,” said Corine Mbiaketcha, Visa’s Vice President and General Manager for East Africa.

“Flocash has grown significantly as a travel payments processor in recent years, and we are excited to partner with them to build innovative payments solutions that reduce friction in commerce for East African merchants,” Mbiaketcha added.

The first step in this collaboration is the launch of Flostore, which is powered by a Visa digital wallet and the Flocash pan-African payment platform and can assist small businesses in accepting digital payments, managing supplies, and accessing financial services across Africa.

In addition to Flostore, Flocash and Visa will collaborate to embed financing in payments and provide analytics, bookkeeping, and reconciliation for small businesses via Visa’s dynamic underwriting capabilities, which include buy now pay later structures.

Small businesses can use Flostore Tap2phone capabilities to convert their existing mobile devices into payment acceptance terminals. Tap2phone is a critical and low-cost mechanism for developing digital payment infrastructure in developing markets.

The CyberSource Payment Gateway technology, on the other hand, incorporates all of the security protocols in place to provide customers with peace of mind when transacting online. It is intended to increase fraud protection, reduce cardholder friction, and increase sales completion, resulting in a better experience for all parties involved. This makes it easier for merchants and issuers to detect and avoid fraud.

SMEs can use their digital footprint to tap into both traditional and alternative sources of funding to expand commerce, while banks reduce operating costs as their revenue base grows. The digitization of the lending process enables banks to streamline inefficient SME lending processes and provide value to their customers.

According to Visa’s annual outlook survey for 2022, 82 percent of small and micro businesses prefer digital payment options.

“Visa is an excellent partner in scaling Flocash’s pan-African payment platform and developing this critical area of African commerce, which has the potential to offer enormous continent-wide economic development opportunities,” said Sirak Mussie, Managing Director of Flocash.

According to the IFC, SMEs account for 90% of all businesses in Africa but have an annual financing gap of more than US $136 billion. A digitized SME sector will unlock Africa’s massive market potential, which is being driven by rapid population growth.