A proliferation of platforms enabling digital sales and procurement is changing the way African enterprises do business, resulting in a more efficient trading system overall and aiding in the removal of frictions that have long impeded traditional supply chains.
These platforms are quickly becoming more than just mediators between buyers and sellers; they are well-positioned to offer payment and credit services to African businesses.
Tunde Kara, CEO and co-founder of restaurant procurement platform Vendease, noted that as the site reached a certain scale, the change from pure marketplace to payment processor became imperative.
“When you build your vertical properly enough, the horizontal payment platform becomes essentially inescapable,” he explains.
He mentioned that the Vendease team realized during the first year of operation that it would need to create its own payment system since suppliers were not getting paid on time, creating delivery delays.
Kara stated that once the company had expanded into payments, developing a buy now, pay later (BNPL) option that allowed restaurants to purchase products on credit was a natural next step to promote industry growth. “They have more cash to play with in terms of creating their businesses,” he said of BNPL.
The introduction of credit has been a spur for payment digitalization for Wasoko, another African B2B platform, according to the company’s founder and CEO, Daniel Yu, in an interview.
Although Wasoko’s informal and small- to medium-sized company (SMB) clients often opt to pay cash upon delivery in frequent upfront transactions, Yu highlighted that digital repayment is one of the prerequisites for getting BNPL loans.
“Through value-added services, we’re discovering methods to drive payment digitalization and assist stores in moving into digital payments ecosystems,” he said.
