Tech in Africa
Ecobank, a leading pan-African banking group, yesterday launched an eCommerce solution targeting MSMEs. The new platform will help MSMEs across Africa gain easy access to the online market, display their goods and services while receiving payment efficiently.
Ecobank’s eCommerce solution adheres to its recent focus on fintech as a way of promoting financial inclusion while improving operational efficiency. This is after several months of engaging with MSME customers since the pandemic began. Among the biggest challenges they faced was access to the market and the ability to sell their products conveniently.
Ecobank’s eCommerce solution is available in Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, and Uganda with advanced plans of rolling it out to other countries of operation. MSMEs can set up their stores on www.ecobank.com/ecommerce, a platform backed by leading payment providers such as Flutterwave, DPO, and iPay. Merchants can choose from any of these service providers when setting up their online stores.
Ecobank Group CEO, Ade Ayeyemi, described “limited access to markets” as one of the main challenges facing MSMEs during the pandemic. He expressed optimism on the new platform’s ability to offer convenience for both the buyers and sellers.
Ecobank has operations in East, Central, West, and Southern Africa with 1,300 branches across 36 countries. Africa has over 400 million internet users. MSMEs have a huge marketplace to display their goods and services through online eCommerce platforms.
