By Akeem Lawal, DCEO, Payment
Processing, Interswitch
The outbreak of coronavirus pandemic
(COVID-19) has had devastating impact that the world is still dealing with.
Apart from the negative health implications, the COVID-19 pandemic has also
crippled economies and businesses across the globe.
Suffice to say that, the resultant
effect of the pandemic has led to job losses, pay cuts, travel restrictions and
consequently fall in foreign trade and general business activities. The
businesses most hit is the Micro Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
A recent survey by the International
Trade Centre (ITC) revealed that the pandemic has strongly affected nearly
two-thirds of micro and small businesses - compared to about 40% of large
companies - with 20% of MSMEs feared to shut down permanently at some points
soon.
Interestingly, the survey revealed that
40% of the companies that came out strong from the pandemic were mainly
technology driven businesses. In the financial services industry, fintech
companies including Interswitch, Flutterwave, Paystack have fared very well. For instance, the National
Bureau of Statistics report shows that digital payment transaction grew from 10.3 trillion Naira in January 2020
to 20 trillion Naira in December 2020.
The SME sector remains a potential game
changer for economic growth globally, including Nigeria. This is why it is
important for stakeholders in the economy to provide simple solutions that will
enhance their ability to generate economic activities that will boost community
and national economy.
Knowing the importance of small
businesses to national economies, many governments implemented support
programmes to assist MSMEs following the pandemic. In Nigeria, the Central Bank
of Nigeria (CBN) earmarked $136.6 million as credit relief for MSMEs businesses
affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the
frailties of many SMEs in terms of little or no digital infusion. However, the
pandemic has not been all gloom as it has opened up vistas of opportunities
inherent in technology and its application. Today we have seen an upsurge in
the adoption of technology across several sectors. Businesses have digitized
their operations, adopted remote work models and moved their services online as
physical interactions have reduced. The adoption of technology is not only
sustaining businesses; it is opening up new opportunities and even markets. Basically,
what technology has done is to throw up insight of possible solutions as well provide
the roadmap to navigate these possibilities.
For businesses to bounce back from the
pandemic, it is important that they define their community (market) as it
relates to the business – and how and where to meet them. This is where
technology comes to play as many of its solutions will help boost lead
generation, seamless payment, effective management, visibility and increased
revenue. So, business must transit onto the digital divide.
In order to assist more businesses,
especially the MSMEs achieve this transition seamlessly, Interswitch has reformed
its Webpay platform to Quickteller Business. The new platform enables businesses
of all sizes; small, medium, large to take their businesses online without
owning a website or having prior technology.
The Quickteller Business platform is intuitive
and robust. It provides seamless payment solutions for businesses and their
customers. Business owners are able to manage their processes more efficiently
like generating invoices to track sales and payments, customized storefront to
display products and brand image, backend access to manage inventory, dispute
management options to settle chargebacks and refunds.
Beyond the obvious solution the
Quickteller Business portends, the platform also exposes the users to a ready
market of over five million potential customers. The Quickteller platform boast
of over 5 million subscribers from Nigeria and East Africa and all Quickteller
Business users are automatically exposed to this community.
With all of these issues taken care of
by a single platform, business owners on the platform can focus on other aspects
of their businesses such as production, capacity building etc. Surviving the
challenging business environment is enough task for business owners these days.
Providing simple solutions that make their processes more effective, allow them
time to increase productivity and provide possibility to scale are the objectives
of the Quickteller Business.
In summary, business owners can take
full control of their businesses by digitizing their operations now. With the
pandemic changing the dynamics of business operations, it is imperative for
SMEs to embrace technology in every form – and the Quickteller Business
platform is a good place to start!
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