Cellulant to launch merchant lending solution to grow SMEs

Olivia Nnorom

Cellulant group, a one-stop-shop payments platform for businesses across Africa, has revealed plans to partner banks and financial institutes to launch a 90 day merchant lending solution, that will offer working capital to merchants.

A statement by Akshay Grover, chief executive officer of Cellulant Group, explained that based on the profiles the company had created for business owners over time, the new solution would grant only a short-term working capital.

Grover said the company will employ artificial intelligence tools to the large quantity of data in its access to create accurate profiles of customer’ creditworthiness, such that each merchant would be assigned a score translating to their credit limit.

“This would enable the firm to disburse funds to the merchants for a period of seven to 90 days.”  Grover said.

Also, Cellulant aims to enhance the capabilities of its payment infrastructure by leveraging embedded finance; by partnering with different financial institutions like banks, insurance companies among others, the company can offer its merchants a wider variety of options.

According to Grover, the company was already piloting this solution in one of its markets with high hopes of penetrating Nigeria, one of its top two markets, in the next couple of months, and a significant contributor in the development of the firm’s products and corporate strategy over the years.

Cellulant’s access to credit service which is a value-added service along the entire value chain will help Nigerian businesses attain their maximum growth potential.

“The possibilities for Nigerian businesses are endless, with the cashless policy already transforming the country’s economy.” Grover said.

“Companies simply need to position themselves with a comprehensive payments partner to reap the vast benefits of a cashless economy,” he added.