Visa, Access Bank Partner On SMB Cards In Nigeria

Visa will be working with Access Bank on a new debit card for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in Nigeria, according to a Vanguard Media Limited report.

The intent is to foster a new level of transparency and efficiency for SMBs’ expense management, helping do away with mismanagement associated with the handling of cash, the report stated.

The new card will be designed to help SMBs, offering a higher spending limit in line with the companies’ spending patterns and working to provide them with access to discount services for logistic services and digital payment acceptance services, the report stated.

Some discounts for companies including Twitter Ads, Shopify, Microsoft Office 365, DocuSign, Regus office space, Udemy, and Dropbox will be made available in the future, according to the report. Access Bank will offer Google Ad credits for free for the first SMB entrepreneurs to sign up for a card.

Nigeria has a sizable environment of SMBs, the report stated, citing the 2020 PWC report on small businesses which found that SMBs contribute 48 percent of the national gross domestic product (GDP) and account for 96 percent of businesses and 84 percent of employment. A state of cash flow report found that 61 percent of SMB owners don’t know how much money their business is spending every month.

In separate news, the global pandemic has shaken up the long-held traditions of paying with cash in Nigeria, PYMNTS reported. That history held on for a long time because it was a known, trusted method of transacting, according to Jay Alabraba, co-founder of Nigerian payments platform Paga. A sizable chunk of its population is also unbanked or underbanked.

The pandemic, according to Alabraba, made physical transactions harder to deal with and created a surge in signups for digital options with Paga. He said the secret has been providing easy transactions for users, giving them simple ways to put money in and get it back out.