Social Commerce Unlocks Growth for Brands, FinTechs in Africa

From a socially oriented online phenomenon, Meta-owned platforms, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, have grown to become a critical medium for doing business in emerging markets and the go-to communication tool between businesses and customers.

The six-hour global outage of all three services last year is a clear example of this.

During that time, small businesses suddenly found themselves cut off from their customers, forced to confront the reality that their livelihoods ultimately hung on the tech giant’s ability to deliver consistent, uninterrupted service to keep their businesses running.

Read more: Facebook Outage Impact on Emerging Market SMBs Just Starting to be Known

For example, Fleur Hebras, a French native who runs a bakery and pastry shop, La Boul’ Accra, in Ghana told PYMNTS of the wave of panic she felt when WhatsApp went down at the time, even though she has created a website to reduce her business’ dependence on the platform.

“I didn’t receive any orders the entire afternoon and evening, and the next day, my Excel sheet was virtually empty,” Hebras said, pointing to the stark contrast compared to the 60 to 70 different orders she receives a day.

The instant messaging platform has also been a critical part of FinTech startups, too.

In a recent interview with PYMNTS, Femi Iromini, CEO of Lagos-based FinTech Moni, highlighted the central role a WhatsApp group played in the establishment of the community-powered digital finance platform for African small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and consumers.

Read Iromini’s interview: Community Loans Plug Funding Hole for Africa’s Mobile Money Agents

“One thing we discovered with a WhatsApp group is the sense of community […] and it stems from the fact that in most emerging markets, either in Kenya or [Rwanda] or Nigeria, there’s this thing around people wanting to form a session and informal groups [to streamline communication],” Iromini said.

Another founder, Tatenda Furusa, told a similar story about the platforms’ impact on the company he co-founded, Imalipay, which is a banking and credit solution for gig workers currently available in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Read Furusa’s interview: Nigeria’s Underbanked Gig Workers Flock to One-Stop-Shop Financial Platforms

Before Imalipay blossomed into the fully fledged app and API suite it is today, the business dealt out financial services to gig workers using a specially programmed WhatsApp bot. As Furusa said, Imalipay has tried to retain the “nimbleness and agility” of those early days in “WhatsApp banking” right up to the present.

Payment Integration

Even if Moni and Imalipay eventually outgrew WhatsApp as their native medium, the use of Meta platforms has played a key role in jumpstarting FinTech growth in emerging markets.

While Banks in Europe and the U.S. are facing mounting fines over bankers’ non-compliant usage of the WhatsApp messaging service, one African payments technology provider is making steps to properly integrate WhatsApp into the flow of international banking.

Last month, Network International announced that it had teamed up with Infobip to bring WhatsApp for Business banking services to financial institutions across Africa.

Related news: Network International, Infobip Team on WhatsApp for Business Banking Services in Africa

Founded as a payment’s subsidiary of Emirates Bank in 1994, Network International has grown its presence across the Middle East and Africa. It now has offices in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Egypt, and operates across almost all other African countries.

Thanks to the new integration, African banks will be able to use WhatsApp to communicate with their customers and to interface the WhatsApp Business API into their own internal communications systems.

While WhatsApp’s functionality as a business communication tool continues to grow, in the African context, one key component is missing for it to become a business super app: payment integration.

Read more: Homegrown Super Apps Shape the Future of Mobile-First African Market

In Brazil and India, WhatsApp Pay is an in-chat payment feature that allows users to connect WhatsApp directly to their bank account and initiate transactions via WhatsApp to their contact list.

That feature is not yet available in African markets, but FinTechs like Klasha are looking to plug that hole. The Nigerian startup has designed a simple payment solution that works via WhatsApp, email, or another messaging channel, enabling businesses to link recipients and make payments with a bank account, debit or credit card, or one of the supported mobile money services.

Related: Klasha’s New Links Let Firms Accept Cross-Border Funds

According to Klasha CEO Jessica Anuna, “offline and online businesses and sole traders alike [can] accept payments from Africa without having to worry about integration processes, writing code or even owning a website.”

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