South African fintech Nomanini has partnered with financial services provider Baobab Group to launch its end-to-end retailer supply chain finance solution StockNow in 8 new countries in Africa.
StockNow, a mobile app, was launched last month and connects FMCGs as well as financial service providers to serve Africa’s informal retailers at scale by enabling informal micro and small retailers to purchase stock digitally.
Nomanini claims that StockNow enables simplified stock ordering, better capital flow, access to stock advances, and maximising sales opportunities for micro, small and medium retailers.
In a statement seen by TechCabal, Nomanini stated that the partnership will leverage the respective strengths of Nomanini and Baobab Group to enable supply chain financing in Africa’s underserved markets and see brick and mortar retailers benefit from healthier stock levels and cash flow.
The partnership will commence with the launch of StockNow in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Over the next 5 years in the 7 other countries—Senegal, Mali, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Madagascar—the partnership aims to reach a total merchant base of 820,000 micro, small, and medium retailers who sell a large number of FMCGs.
Commenting on the partnership, Nomanini CEO, Vahid Monadjem, stated that the company’s understanding of Africa’s general trade sector coupled with Baobab Global’s mission to make financial services more accessible, affordable, inclusive and transparent complement each other to create services that deliver the best value to retailers.
Apart from enabling informal merchants and micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets to distribute digital goods such as airtime and prepaid electricity, Nomanini, which was founded in 2010, also offers micro-loans to merchants and operates in markets such as Ghana and Mozambique.
According to Disrupt Africa, the startup has to date raised over $7.5 million in funding which includes a US$4 million round led by Standard Bank in 2019, and a funding round worth $1.5 million funding round in 2021 led by Standard Bank, Goodwell Investments, and the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank who each contributed $500,000 in the round.
