Africa is a new frontier. But with the Banking penetration (number of banking accounts to population) being low at 17% on average compared with 50% in other emerging markets in 2014, access to credit, poor knowledge on accounting principles, financial inclusion remains a big problem in Africa and a major challenge for SMEs in Africa.
According to Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and National Bureau of Statistics, 73.24% of the topmost priority of assistance needed by MSMEs’ operators is finance. In addition, only 4.2% of 17.2 million MSMEs have been able to access loans or overdrafts from financial institutions while new entrants or start-ups find it practically impossible to access funds from banks. The reason being that most MSMEs cash flow isn’t stable; it cannot be traced thereafter making it difficult for them to get grants or loans.
This is the main reason why we exist; Naira Manager(nairamanager.com) , a financial management web based application for MSME’s. We have designed Naira Manager to boost financial inclusion and probity among the millions of MSMEs operating in Nigeria and elsewhere across the globe. The web application features agent banking, business planning and management tools such as financial intelligence, business modeling, forecasting, real time financial analysis, business information, business networking and loan/grant application.