Sme news and trends

M-Pesa/Microsoft Pact Underscores Tech’s Role in Small Business Financial Inclusion  
Financial Inclusion // January 16, 2024

The recent announcement of joint efforts by Microsoft to build new financial services for businesses hints at a multipronged effort to boost financial inclusion … … Including financial inclusion for smaller businesses, leveraging the M-Pesa platform. As reported, the two firms will “offer digital services...

Data Has Become the Fuel for Small Business Financial Stability
SMBs // September 01, 2023

Main Street may be the soul of America, but its businesses find themselves increasingly embattled. That’s because small and medium-sized business (SMBs) looking for credit or working capital and other financing solutions are often underserved and ignored by traditional financial institutions (FIs). It is a...

Nigeria’s SMEs Boost Traffic and Cut Fraud With Cardless Transfers
Payments Innovation // November 10, 2022

Card payments, as ubiquitous as they may appear, are actually not the preferred payment method in certain markets. Take the case of Nigeria, for example. According to Lagos FinTech firm TeamApt, account transfers represented over 80% of all business transactions in August 2022, compared to...

Meta Lets Indian Advertisers Pay in Interest-Free Installments
B2B Payments // August 30, 2022

Saying it wants to strengthen working capital support for small businesses in India, Meta has announced it will allow them to pay for advertising campaigns in three monthly installments without having to pay interest.  This new financial support feature called No Cost Equated Monthly Installments...

Interviews & Exclusives
Data Has Become the Fuel for Small Business Financial Stability

September 01, 2023
Main Street may be the soul of America, but its businesses find themselves increasingly embattled. That’s because small and medium-sized business (SMBs) looking for credit or working capital and other financing solutions are often underserved and ignored by traditional financial institutions (FIs). It is a damning double-edged sword: The worse the economic situation, the more […]

Nigeria’s SMEs Boost Traffic and Cut Fraud With Cardless Transfers

November 10, 2022
Card payments, as ubiquitous as they may appear, are actually not the preferred payment method in certain markets. Take the case of Nigeria, for example. According to Lagos FinTech firm...

To Avoid Failure, BNPL for Business Must Be Customized, Not Cloned

May 16, 2022
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) transaction volume is expected to reach $680 billion worldwide by 2025, a clear indication that consumers will continue to embrace installment payments and adopt the...

Hybrid Banking Model Bridges ‘Much Needed’ Last-Mile Service Delivery Gap for Nigeria’s SMEs

April 19, 2022
Nigeria’s current financial system can be tough to navigate for millions of merchants who live in remote communities and have no access to reliable banking solutions. The lack of a...

Quick Reads
Treasury Reups Pandemic Aid for Small Businesses

May 29, 2022
There’s been progress on a federal pandemic aid program to help small business access to capital, over a year after it was initially authorized, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Sunday. This comes as firms are now battling high inflation and the greater risks of a recession. The Treasury Department has been sending out around […]

India’s ICICI Bank Opens Digital Banking Services to All Small Businesses

April 28, 2022
ICICI Bank will be rolling out India’s first comprehensive “digital ecosystem” for all micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. That will include customers of other banks, according...

Small Businesses Object to Lawmakers’ Plan to Reallocate Unspent COVID-19 Relief

April 18, 2022
Small business owners are not happy about a new proposal in Congress to redirect unspent money from COVID-19 programs to give $10 billion for various services like vaccines and therapeutics,...

Nets Expands Poland Presence With PeP Acquisition

March 12, 2020
Denmark payments startup Nets said on Thursday (March 12) that it has acquired Polish merchant acquirer Polskie ePłatności (PeP). PeP, valued at €405 million, has over 125,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals...