COVID-19, technology and the new face of small businessesBy 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!