Expert charts path to improved financing for African SMEs

Kyiara Technologies Limited in partnership with Factoring and Supply Chain Finance Limited has introduced a trade receivables platform, KYIARA, to empower small and medium businesses across the continent.

Speaking at the official launch of the platform, Chairman Kyiara Technologies Limited, Chris Oshiafi said the launch of the platform was part of its efforts to provide access to unlimited working capital for SMEs across the continent.

“SMEs account for 90 per cent of employment and contribute about 60 per cent to GDP. Intra-African trade is less than five per cent within the global sphere.

“The implication of this is the fact that there is a need to develop trade and create the enabling financing for SMEs across Africa, and that is why Kyiara exists to address these pain-points,” he said.

According to Oshiafi, Kyiara Technologies was created to empower small and medium businesses across Africa, maintaining that SMEs were the fulcrum on which economic growth pivots.

He added that the platform aims to strengthen Africa’s invoice factoring ecosystem and to support intra-Africa trade.

Also speaking about the new platform, Chief Executive Officer of Factoring and Supply Chain Finance Limited, a member of Pan-African Capital Holdings Group, Lanre Bakare, said: “Kyiara is an offshoot from the company’s webinar of last year that had key players in the financial industry and captains of industries in attendance.

“The Kyiara platform provides early payment to both suppliers and buyers; for the suppliers, they get paid earlier to maintain cash flow while buyers get a discount on purchases, and this is what brought about the Kyiara platform,” Bakare added.

On his part, a director at Kyiara Technologies Limited, Val Obi, noted that Kyiara as a platform, allows vendors to upload unpaid invoices and get financing offers from investors swiftly upon confirmation from buyers.

“We do not finance; we provide the technological platform to bring transparency and structure for all the stakeholders in the trade circle,” he said.