Marrakech – experts and industry leaders came together today in a session entitled “The possibilities of next door” to combat the transformative power of FinTech for small and medium -sized companies (SME) in the future of Gitex Africa Africa.
Adetayo Oduwole, director of international economy and conformity at Itana, emphasized that financial obstacles to SMEs to be sought for expansions are among the most important challenges.
“What we need is simple banking transactions, access to financial resources, the simple compliance and uncomplicated reparation mechanisms,” he said, pointing out how Fintech innovations address these pain points.
Oduwole continued to campaign for a regional approach to political development and said: “We urged the regional expansion of SMEs. Let us ensure that they have an expansion opportunity in West Africa and North Africa.”
He also advised that political commitment to the involvement of FinTech is of essential importance for the surroundings of a better SME. “If we have this political will, it is easy to support the regulation. As soon as there is political will, we use the control mechanisms.”
In the meantime, the international business expert from ITANA called for proper market research before any expansion efforts.
“Let’s start with sustainable guidelines, let us carry out our right market research and speak to the experts,” he urged, and increased the vitality of cooperation to achieve the intended goals.
“SMEs should stop seeing themselves as an islands. It has to work together and work together.”
William Benthall, the global director of government relationships at Glovo, increased the importance of market willingness to expand.
“I saw many SMEs and start-ups that make this jump when they are not ready,” he warned.
He also noted that successful scaling requires several systems and said that SMEs need payment systems and a technically experienced population.
Benthall announced how his company has achieved a direct economic impact of around 1 billion US dollars for 45,000 African companies for over five years, with 90% SMEs.
“There are amazing stories from small companies that would have been hidden on a street that would have been made accessible and grew up in medium-sized companies with the help of technology.”
The session showed how FinTech increasingly exceed the gap between the growth of SMEs and the practical challenges of expansion in the various markets of Africa.
In this way, the takeaways of the session offer new ways for companies to use the continuous digital transformation of the continent.
