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Visa, a global leader in digital payments, has announced a partnership with Flocash, an African startup appraised by Financial Times to be the fastest-growing fintech of 2022, to provide African SMEs with access to robust digital solutions that will enable the success and digitisation of business processes.
As more Africans explore internet use for their lifestyle and business concerns, there is a growing need to digitise the traditional systems of payments and access to financial services for SMEs in Africa. Against this backdrop, Visa’s latest partnership with Flocash is directed towards promoting digital capabilities for African SMEs.
To kickstart the partnership, Flostore, a digital solution optimised for SMEs will be launched. According to the official announcement seen by TechCabal, Flostore can help businesses accept digital payments, mannage their supplies, and access financial services across Africa. The digital solution will also be powered by Visa’s digital wallet system and Flocash’s payment platform.
As part of the partnership, Visa will collaborate with Flocash to build embedded financing in payments, while bringing analytics, bookkeeping, and reconciliation to small businesses through Visa’s underwriting systems.
Corine Mbiaketcha, VP and GM for East Africa at Visa, said in the statement seen by TechCabal that the partnership will help African businesses to help their customers innovatively.
“Visa is committed to expanding the digitisation of payments across Africa. With partners like Flocash, our goal is to enable African businesses to access our payments ecosystem and technologies to enable them to innovatively and efficiently serve their customers. This partnership with Flocash, as well as the launch of Flostore, are an important step towards achieving this goal,”
“Flocash has grown significantly as a travel payments processor over the last few years, and we are thrilled to partner with them to build innovative payments solutions that reduce friction in commerce for merchants in East Africa,” Mbiaketcha added in the statement.
Flocash, which enables global and cross-border businesses to accept over 200 payment methods across 60 countries, has maintained that the digitisation of SME processes, such as those involved in lending, will streamline unnecessary processes and optimise value.
Sirak Mussie, MD of Flocash, has expressed his confidence in the Visa partnership, asserting that the solutions that will be provided can open Africa to many opportunities.
“Visa is a great partner to scale Flocash’s pan-African payment platform and develop this critical area of African commerce that can offer enormous continent-wide economic development opportunities,” he said in the statement.
Flocash has also announced that Flostore will come with a Tap2phone capability that will enable businesses to convert their existing mobile devices into payment acceptance terminals.