SME FIFA- Financial Inclusion For All

Across Emerging markets today, over 100million small businesses are financially and socially excluded due to inability to get access to credit and other financial services to grow. This is a representation of over $5trillion in missed business opportunity and 65% of them are proven to be women led businesses according to reports by the World Bank and PWC.

Small businesses across emerging markets are unable to get access to financial services like micro loans due to lack of data on them. This leaves them with missed business opportunities and inability to grow their business. Most often die and wind up, thus removing the new jobs and economic potentials of the businesses to their communities.

Trade Lenda as a Digital bank for SMEs today, allows Manufacturers and financial partners the ability to offer credit to retailers and SMEs through our APIs and credit technology. With 98% accuracy so far in underwriting SMEs creditworthiness, we have helped thousands of SMEs get access to timely credit and other financial services within 6 hours. We are on track to leveraging on supporting the next 100 million SMEs financially and socially included to create the next 10million new jobs through:

1.  Credit in form of inventory financing for Retailers and Farmers, 85% who are women within our network.

2.  Credit in form of invoice financing for SMEs suppliers.

3. Access to other financial services like micro insurance, savings and investments through partner banks and providers.

Product Demo

We have built a trusted credit platform that allows SMEs connect with manufacturers and financial service providers who can help them become financially included. Traditional financial institutions can now leverage on our platform to offer unsecured financial credits and services to SMEs who need them timely while manufacturers can give goods on credit for SMEs with viable credit scores to grow and avoid missed business opportunities.

For example, Wealth a single mother of one can now accelerate her business, meet supply request of her clients through our unsecured credit solution. Cynthia and Ada on the other hand can now get inputs of products to grow her farm or business for increased yield or business inventory through our solution. Manufacturers and financial service providers are also not worried on the risk based on validated algorithm that assesses character and capacity of each user to repay back before approval on Trade Lenda's platform.

Trade Lenda founder grew up with mothers who experienced first-hand the challenges of being financially excluded. Against all odds, they gave us their best and we have gone on to work and grow with financial institutions with over $200billion in Asset under Management among others. 30 years after, the underlying issues preventing SMEs from getting timely access to credit and other financial services is still a major issue. We have built a strong network and access over the past 5 years within this SME segment and today leveraging technology and our understanding of the SMEs to develop custom solution to help them become bankable and then access other financial services such as credit, savings, insurance, and lots more.

Since May 2021, we have provided access to financial inclusion to over 240,000 SMEs across Nigeria. 85% of which are women who were not previously bankable now bankable. We have also facilitated over 1,700 disbursement in excess of $3million. 

Trade Lenda has 3 Key Objectives, and we intend to leverage Solve in helping us achieve our goals and impact.

1. Scale our Product and Impact: We believe that it takes a village to train a child. To successfully scale our impact, we need the right partners that can guide and contribute on our product roadmap in tools for effectively building, ability to track and measure impact and also strategics to win at scale.

2. Financial Resources: Our business is heavy on liquidity; we are driven not just in profitability but also impact. For an effective blend of the two, we seek access to impact and development agencies that can help us keep our cost of capital low so we can support more women and youth's businesses (SMEs) grow and achieve their full potentials. We strongly believe Solve can give us this exposure and access.

3. Diversity and Sustainability in Management: We seek to build a world diverse team and a healthy workforce being top 10 best workplace across Africa and top 100 within the next 5 years. Everything rises and falls on leadership, so we seek to engage and attract the right knowledge and resources to effectively shape and build structures for the kind of workplace we are building as we scale in team size and impact of our customers.

Solving access to credit for the bankable small and medium enterprises has been the norm for decades with little or no regards to absorb the informal retail sector. We have built a technology that integrates data to help the informal sector become inclusive and bankable, as well as helping them get credit and access to other financial services. We are also the first in Nigeria driving access to credit leveraging APIs between manufacturers and retailers. Today across emerging markets, 65% of the retailers generally are women and they contribute to about 84% of jobs created across Africa and other emerging markets. By empowering them, we would be creating the next 1million jobs by 2027 and next 10 million jobs over the next decades. We would drive financial inclusion and contribute towards eradicating poverty across Africa and other emerging markets.

At Trade Lenda, we believe that creating jobs is one of the most important ways we can help drive economic growth and reduce poverty in Africa. Our platform will make it easier for SMEs to access the financing they need to expand their operations and create new job opportunities for their communities.

Our next 12 months to 5-year impact goal is to support millions of SMEs towards creating the next 1million new jobs (SDG 8) by 2027. By driving financial and social inclusion, we would be eradicating poverty (SDG 1) across the communities we serve.

Through our inventory and invoice financing of agro commodity products and inputs, we would also be contributing toward food security and zero hunger (SDG 2).

We would achieve the above by driving more inclusion for small businesses as well as financial education across every community we scale over the next 12months to 5 years. Today, we work with structured market leaders to achieve our goals in driving digital and financial literacy among the retail informal sector.

Our Impact is measured through the lens of the Sustainable Devlopment Goals 1, 2, 8,9 and 10.

Today we have tracked 200 new jobs created through the SMEs we support tracked half yearly against employee additions. We are looking to support millions of SMEs towards creating the next 1million new jobs (SDG 8) by 2027.

Also, by driving financial and social inclusion, we would be eradicating poverty (SDG 1) across the communities we serve. We currently match this based on the over 240,000 SMEs we are giving financial access today.

Through our inventory and invoice financing of agro commodity products and inputs, we are also contributing toward food security and zero hunger (SDG 2). 

We track 9 and 10 through digital and financial education we spread through our network and trade collective associations leaders and representatives in various markets across Nigeria and soon emerging markets.

Trade Lenda is a digital bank that aims to provide financial services to African small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The following is theory of change for Trade Lenda:

Inputs:

•       Skilled team with experience in financial technology and banking

•       Financial capital for start-up costs and ongoing operations

•       Digital platform and technology infrastructure

•       Partnerships with African banks and financial institutions

Activities:

1. Design and develop a digital platform that is user-friendly and accessible to African SMEs
2. Build partnerships with African banks and financial institutions to provide access to Trade Lenda's financial services.
3. Develop a credit scoring system based on data analytics to assess creditworthiness of SMEs.
4. Provide access to working capital loans and other financial services to African SMEs through Trade Lenda's digital platform.
5. Offer financial education and training to SMEs to help them understand and manage their finances more effectively.

Outputs:

•       A user-friendly digital platform for African SMEs to access financial services.

•       Partnerships with African banks and financial institutions to expand reach and impact.

•       Credit scoring system to assess creditworthiness of SMEs.

•       Working capital loans and other financial services provided to African SMEs

•       Financial education and training offered to SMEs to help them manage their finances effectively.

Outcomes:

•       Increased access to financial services for African SMEs, leading to growth and expansion of their businesses.

•       Improved financial management skills among SMEs, leading to increased profitability and sustainability.

•       Reduced poverty and unemployment in African communities as a result of SME growth and expansion

Impact:

•       Increased economic growth and development in African communities through the growth and success of SMEs, leading to overall improvement in quality of life for community members.

Our solution leverages Machine learning technology to underwrite user requests, help them become bankable and get timely access to credit and other financial services. We are available both on Web and Mobile Apps.

Diversity and equity and inclusion is key in our human capital policy document. A 6 team of management team currently consist of 4 men and 2 women, however the full time currently has 70% women and 30% men. We are currently and constantly making equal room for everyone regardless of gender or language to grow and succeed within our organisation.

Since 2021, we have operated referral scheme with zero marketing budget until 2023 thus today puts our Customer Acquisition cost less than $5. We have also grown year on year from 2021 till date by 500%. We are on track to grow 10x from inception in 2023 targeting $1million+ in Annual recurring revenue and profitability by December 2023. We earn from interest on loans and commissions from financial partners on other financial services like savings and insurance.

We are a social enterprise yet for profit, thus currently generate revenue from interest on loans disbursed and commissions earned from partner financial institutions who offer other services to SMEs on our platform.  We would be profitable by December 2023.

Today we generate a Monthly reoccurring revenue (MRR) of $23,000+ with a monthly burn rate of $32,000 thus leaving a margin out of $9,000. We are currently looking to increase our liquidity base to $2million which would allow us generate $110,000+ in monthly revenue thus netting off our monthly spend and on the path to profitability by the end of 2023.