MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Platform Nomanini Secures $500k from FMO; Connecting MSMEs to Retail Distributors, MSME Customers to Financial Services in Africa

Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership, recently invested USD 500,000 in financial technology (fintech) platform Nomanini in the form of a convertible loan. FMO disbursed the funding from MASSIF, a fund it manages for the Dutch government. Jeroen Harteveld, MASSIF’s fund manager, said, “Nomanini’s focus on informal and unbanked or underbanked merchants across Africa fit perfectly with the mandate of the financial inclusion fund.”

Founded in 2011, Nomanini facilitates financial service providers and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in reaching retail micro-, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and their customers in Africa. Through Nomanini, merchants can use a mobile phone as a retail point-of-sale (POS) solution. Nomanini also finances merchants’ purchases from FMCG firms. In addition, MSMEs can use Nomanini to offer their customers financial services such as bill payments, prepaid utility transactions, and cash-in and cash-out banking services. The firm has offices in Kenya as well as in South Africa. Its investors include Goodwell Investments, which has offices in Kenya, the Netherlands, and South Africa, and Standard Chartered, a UK-based bank that is mainly active in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Financial data for Nomanini are unavailable.

MASSIF supports access to financial services such as savings and loans for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. Set up in 2006, the fund is active mostly in low-income countries,supporting MSMEs, agricultural value chains, access to basic goods, andenterprises owned by women and youth. MASSIF has a portfolio of EUR 545 million (USD 647 million) as of December 2019.

Established in 1970, FMO is 51-percent held by the Dutch government and 49-percent by private sector institutions. The development finance institution works toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by funding capacity development as well as placing debt and equity investments in sectors such as agribusiness, financial institutions, and energy. During the six months ending June 2020, FMO lost EUR 280 million (USD 330 million) on a total portfolio of EUR 12.7 billion (USD 14.9 billion).

By Aakansha Shenoy, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

FMO press release
https://www.fmo.nl/news-detail/d43f301d-0adc-4857-bc28-7e219ded7cbc/fmo-supports-african-fintech-platform-nomanini

FMO homepage
https://www.fmo.nl/

Nomanini press release
https://nomanini.pr.co/196547-fmo-joins-nomanini-investor-base-to-boost-pan-african-expansion

Nomanini homepage
https://nomanini.com/

MASSIF webpage
https://massif.fmo.nl/

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