Rinchi
TechInAfrica – The Kenyan payment and micro-savings platform for SMEs, Asilimia, has raised $350,000 (R5 million) from the Unicorn Group at the recent event – SA Innovation Summit’s Africa Cup. According to the startup, the investment will be used to help SMEs access its essential services, including insurance, bank accounts, and loans.
In addition to the investment, Asilimia is also looking to raise an additional $200,000 in seed capital in March 2020 to help more MSMEs to gain access to financial services they need.
Tekwane Mwendwa, Co-Founder and CEO of Asilimia said, “This sector could do far more if the Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within it were empowered with the ability to build wealth, which, in turn, will benefit financial service providers that tap into this burgeoning market.”
Mwendwa added, “With there being 150 million MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa and this market set to produce $600 billion by 2022, the opportunity presented by this relatively untapped industry is massive, even more so if they are empowered to build wealth.”
Mwenda said that SMEs are currently having a lack of access to digital financial services. Furthermore, they are often victims of “loan sharks” who capture their margins. As a result, it prevents them from building wealth on their trade.
“Nobody builds businesses thinking about you. Banks don’t think about you, marketing companies don’t think about you. The lack of formal services for this sector results in a lack of data on the sector and the subgroups within it. This, in turn, results in financial service providers being unable to access this thriving economy effectively. Additionally, governments are unable to derive taxes from the sector which can hamper their ability to provide adequate resources for their citizens as well as deliver programs designed to overcome poverty and inequality,” Mwendwa said, explaining from his point of view as an informal trader himself.
Asimilia helps small businesses to get access to financial services they need in building wealth that leads to financial inclusion. The firm helps them by providing them access to a business mobile money solution and allowing them to save as they make transactions.
Source: techmoran.com
