Feature/OPED
Four Ways FMCG Distributors Can Use Embedded Finance to Grow Trade Within Supply Chains
By Ope Adeoye
You have a shop in the neighbourhood or market selling things like milk, noodles, sugar, etc. Now imagine that your plug for Nestle, Unilever or Flours Mill of Nigeria (FMN) products provides you with a special bank account. “That’s absurd, why?” You say. Let’s take a step back a little…
This distributor has probably done business with you for five, 10 years or more, knows your business, your purchase, sales and payment patterns, and can, in fact, offer financial services better suited to your business.
This is because they know more about you than perhaps the big-name bank you use down the road. For example, when you need to expand your business from one to two shops, your bank is unable to give you the loan to help you do that because, frankly, it can’t tell whether or not you are into what you claim is your business.
Your bank statement does not contain enough information about your business to help them decide and they don’t know what you sell daily, weekly, etc. Or the margins you get on each supply you receive and sell. But, your distributor provides you goods, maybe weekly or even daily, knows the volumes you move and how promptly or not you make payments. Also know the margins in each product. Just like you, they know the business.
If the distributor could finance you to grow your business, you will buy more from him. And sell more. And she in turn will pull more volume from Nestle, P&G, etc. Win-win-win for everyone.
The spoiler? That distributor is not a bank and can hardly do more than give you goods on credit, occasionally. She definitely doesn’t have the liquidity to cater to all of your growth needs.
That’s where embedded finance comes in.
A Forbes article describes embedded finance as “the use of financial tools or services — such as lending or payment processing — by a non-financial provider,” and expanding this, the end goal is to offer customers a payment experience that is likely to keep them loyal and continue doing business through that platform.
Here are four ways the FMCG industry can utilise embedded finance, to offer financial services throughout their supply chain, without having to grow through the overhead of becoming banks themselves.
Credit line to keep goods moving
The supply chain as of today is mostly analogue and it is hard to accurately know in micro details, what role every participant has played. To be clear, a manufacturer or distributor would have records of how much inventory is sold or not, but does it know what moved across different categories of distributors and down to retailers? Not likely. And definitely, not accurately.
Digitizing the workflow creates an integrated ecosystem in which every player becomes visible in the supply chain. This is especially important for players closer to the bottom of the chain, many of whom the FMCG manufacturers would have no direct records of, yet are active participants in getting goods down the last mile and to consumers.
Many of these could rely on physical bookkeeping to track their finances, but when they need a credit line for goods from the same company, showing a track record becomes challenging. Even worse when they buy their inventory through layers and layers of middlemen and sales agents.
A finbox article emphasised that “The digital integration of smaller distributors and local stores through payment solutions, accounting apps, and banking solutions will generate standardized data on transactions within the chain, leading to increased transparency at every stage – tracking goods, inventory management, and sales.”
In essence, offering digital tools that help a retailer to spend, receive and track their money – embedded finance, could allow a 3rd party (or even a bank) have the visibility and confidence to step in to offer credit lines that support the retailer with goods or services (as the case may be), based on their transaction history, which would have been recorded on the platform.
In a practical sense: If a shop owner usually buys N20,000 worth of inventory every week, consistently, and a bank or lender has visibility into this, they are able to step in to help increase the basket size to N30,000.
Needless to say, the more goods the retailer is able to sell, the more the FMCG distributor or manufacturer itself stands to make. With embedded finance – inserting the services of the bank or lender into the (now digital) exchanges between retailer and distributor, we are now able to determine based on transactions; who is qualified for what level of credit line. It becomes possible to have data-driven decision making that keeps retailers in business and possibly expanding and invariably, the company at the top of this chain keeps winning.
Insurance on sales
Insurance is often overlooked in this part of the world and when offered to people, it is not unusual to hear; ‘loss is not my portion’. Yet, losses occur, and perhaps more frequently than many would like to admit.
However, there are instances where insurance is not optional, especially for the transnational movement of goods.
As part of the supply chain experience, insurance protection can be embedded within the solution offered by the FMCG manufacturer or distributor. As usual, an insurance provider needs historical data to determine risk and price it appropriately. The digitization effort creates this trail and makes this possible.
In practical terms: It’s not uncommon for drivers of delivery vans to drive off with goods and cash. Or get waylaid by urchins. Embedded insurance protects against this possibility. But requires digitization to be effective.
There are even more interesting insurance products that can be designed: Imagine a retailer getting money back for inventory they were unable to sell due to external factors? Yes, possible.
A financial bouquet to do more
The account number that ties any dealer in the supply chain to the embedded finance solution, can also be used for any regular banking service. So, when the delivery of Indomie Noodles comes from Dufil and the distributor needs to pay the haulage company, they are able to do so through the embedded finance solution provided by Dufil. They would not need to log into a separate bank account, then make a transfer, or worse still, hand over a wad of cash.
Payment for warehouses, store rent, utilities and even salaries of employees can be done from that account provided by the FMCG company.
A distributor can make all business-related expenses from that single account, making it easy to accurately determine what costs are associated with that business, and how profitable or not it has been.
The good part of this? Because the account is provided by the FMCG company or Distributor, they usually have negotiated “corporate pricing” with the bank or financial service providers… and because they are not in this to make money from banking services, per se, they are able to pass those gains down to the retailer in the form of cheaper services, etc. Imagine sending money for less or buying airtime at a discount because the margins of the bank have been passed to the retailer in the form of incentives.
Integrated payment experiences to eliminate cash
Every distributor and manufacturer knows that cash handling is a big problem and cost. The retailer receives cash from his own customers. The retailer pays the wholesaler or distributor in cash. Everyone has to count, reconcile and move that cash around. Someone pays for the insurance on that cash, someone pays the cashless penalty on that cash, Etc.
With an embedded bank account, the distributor can in one click take payments from the account of the retailer when the time comes to pay.
With an embedded account, customers can pay directly into the account of the retailer versus cash. And these days, they can do that with either cards or transfers.
And the incentive for the Retailer to push this? Every inflow and outflow from that account helps him to create the required data trail through which he can get the credit line with which he can start his 2nd shop or buy more inventory. An unending hamster wheel of growth..
In conclusion
Embedded finance solutions are ready for deployment within days and do not require building from scratch. OnePipe makes it possible for non-financial institutions like FMCG manufacturers and distributors, to offer financial services without becoming fully-fledged providers.
From facilitating credit to offering investment possibilities, each possibility is in itself a full-time job, with requirements varying from tech to operations, regulation, dealing with things like fraud, compliance etc, yet, possible to offer as a single suite through embedded finance. The experiences for customers keep them integral in the supply chain and implementing FMCG expands revenue without ‘investing heavily in the tech to achieve this. What is there not to love about embedded finance?
Ope Adeoye is the Chief Plumber of OnePipe
Feature/OPED
What Does Nigeria’s $51bn Reserves Milestone Mean if Most New Foreign Money Can Leave Quickly?
Nigeria’s foreign reserves have climbed to about $51 billion, a decade-plus high, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). EBC Financial Group (EBC) notes that this reflects stronger investor confidence, but the second half may show whether it holds, as the build rests on three cyclical drivers: oil earnings, short-term foreign money and a narrowing official-to-street naira gap.
Reserves rose from about $32 billion in April 2024, during a dollar shortage, to about $51 billion now, near the CBN’s target. Much came from two cyclical sources, strong oil earnings and money chasing high-yielding naira assets, so EBC expects the pace to slow or reverse. Fitch Ratings, a major international credit rating agency, expects a marginal decline to about $47 billion by the end of 2026, citing higher spending and external pressures.
David Precious, Senior Market Analyst at EBC Financial Group, said, “Nigeria’s reserve build is real but may not be durable yet, because nearly all of the new money is the kind that can leave quickly. Of the $10.37 billion that came in over the first quarter, the overwhelming majority was short-term portfolio funds rather than long-term investment, so a shift in oil prices, global interest rates or confidence in the naira might pull a large part of it straight back out.”
Most New Money Can Still Leave Quickly
The composition of the foreign inflows explains the caution over how long the build can last. The country attracted $10.37 billion in foreign investment in the first quarter of 2026, up 83.83 per cent year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Of that, $9.86 billion or 95.09 per cent, was portfolio money, largely short-term naira debt such as Treasury bills that investors can sell at the next auction, while foreign direct investment, the long-term kind that builds factories and jobs, was $135.08 million, or 1.30 per cent. Put simply, of each dollar coming in, about 95 cents can leave quickly, and barely one cent stays.
That money supports reserves while it stays. Dollars brought in to buy naira assets add to market supply, letting the CBN hold more reserves and steady the naira. It leaves when conditions change. Nigeria earns most of its export dollars from oil and gas, so lower oil prices mean fewer dollars, and as a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), it cannot simply produce more, output capped by quota and reduced by theft and ageing fields. Higher global interest rates draw money toward safer returns abroad, and a weakening naira prompts investors to sell early. When oil fell in 2016 and 2020, foreign investors withdrew and could not convert naira to dollars as supply dried up, leaving the CBN to clear more than $7 billion in trapped obligations into 2024.
The Oil Boost is No Longer Certain
Oil looked like a dependable source of the dollars behind the reserves only months ago. Earlier in 2026, concern over disruption around the Strait of Hormuz lifted crude prices, and stronger receipts flowed in, with crude oil export earnings of $8.11 billion in the first quarter in the CBN’s balance-of-payments data. That support is now easing. The tension has subsided, and Brent traded near $72 on June 29, down about 24 per cent over the month, back to pre-conflict levels. With the price boost gone and output constrained, reserves are more exposed, leaning on non-oil earnings and investor patience rather than oil.
The Naira Still Trades at Two Prices
The naira has traded at two prices, an official rate and a higher parallel-market rate, and closing that gap into one trusted price is what many investors might watch most. Before committing funds, they may want assurance they can convert naira to dollars at a fair rate when they exit, and a wide gap revives the fear of being trapped that lingers from earlier shortages. The gap has narrowed to roughly N20 to N30, with the CBN’s official rate near N1,380 per dollar on June 26 against parallel-market quotes around N1,400. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2026 Article IV review urged Nigeria to depend less on this fast-moving portfolio money and to keep phasing out its multiple exchange-rate practices. The CBN’s Foreign Exchange Manual, in force from 1 June, is intended to make the market clearer, though such rules build confidence only once investors can freely trade dollars at the posted rate.
What could Make the Build Durable
A few signs that may show the build turning durable include a smaller gap between the official and street naira rates, more long-term foreign investment, and steadier oil earnings. A gap that stays small, now roughly N20 to N30, may mean investors trust the official rate and no longer need the street market. A clear rise in foreign direct investment, only $135 million last quarter against $9.86 billion of short-term money, might mean lasting capital is replacing funds that can leave at the next auction. Oil earnings that hold up, rather than sliding from the low $70s, should help keep reserves steady, since oil and gas bring in most of Nigeria’s export dollars.
“Reserves built on money chasing high yields can fall as fast as they rose, as they did after the last two oil shocks, when investors left, and the CBN spent years clearing a foreign-exchange backlog,” Precious added. “What holds through a downturn is slower money, direct investment, steady oil and non-oil export earnings and one credible naira rate, and that is the shift Nigeria has yet to make.”
By Olajumoke Bello
Across Nigeria, small and medium enterprises remain the backbone of economic activity. They drive trade, create jobs, and sustain millions of livelihoods. Yet, despite their importance, many SMEs continue to operate below their full potential due to persistent structural challenges.
Access to finance remains one of the most cited constraints. However, the issue today goes beyond the availability of capital. Many businesses struggle with financial readiness, weak documentation, and limited understanding of what lenders require. This often leads to missed opportunities, even when funding options exist.
At the same time, SMEs face gaps in market access and visibility. Business owners operate in highly localised environments, with limited exposure to broader networks that can unlock partnerships, new markets, and growth opportunities. This isolation can constrain scalability and reduce long-term competitiveness.
Equally important is the capability gap. Many entrepreneurs grow through resilience and experience but lack structured knowledge on critical areas such as financial management, export readiness, and digital adoption. Without this, even well-capitalised businesses can struggle to sustain growth.
These challenges point to a clear need for a more practical and integrated approach to SME support. It is no longer sufficient to offer standalone solutions. SMEs require ecosystems that combine knowledge, access, and direct engagement in ways that reflect how they actually operate.
A key shift is the move from centralised interventions to localised engagement. SMEs are deeply influenced by their immediate environments, whether markets, industrial clusters, or trade corridors. Solutions must therefore be brought closer to where these businesses function, allowing for more relevant support and stronger relationships.
Another important shift is from awareness to action. Business owners do not only need information; they need insights that they can apply immediately. This includes understanding how to structure their finances, how to access trade opportunities, and how to connect with the right partners to scale their operations.
There is also a growing need for continuity. Many SME-focused initiatives deliver strong initial impact but lack follow-through. For support to be effective, it must extend beyond one-off engagements into sustained relationships, with clear pathways for onboarding, advisory, and growth.
For financial institutions, this presents both responsibility and an opportunity. Supporting SMEs now requires moving beyond transactional banking to deeper partnership models. It requires understanding businesses at a granular level and co-creating solutions that evolve with their needs.
At Stanbic IBTC, this perspective continues to shape our approach to SME development. Our focus is on delivering practical support that translates into real business outcomes, helping enterprises grow, compete, and contribute more meaningfully to the economy.
As part of this commitment, we are extending our SME engagement to the regions through the Nigeria Business Summit Regional Tour. The tour will take structured, on-ground activations into key commercial hubs, where SMEs can access funding guidance, trade insights, advisory support, and direct engagement with financial experts.
The regional tour will take place across five strategic locations, bringing these solutions closer to business owners in Aba, Onitsha, Ibadan and Kano.
This approach reflects an important principle. When support moves closer to businesses and when solutions are delivered in ways that are practical and continuous, SMEs are better positioned to grow sustainably. In turn, this strengthens not only individual enterprises but the broader economy.
Olajumoke Bello is the Head of Enterprise Banking at Stanbic IBTC Bank
By Winston Osuchukwu
The average Nigerian borrower is widely considered high-risk – a claim repeated in credit committees, priced into retail loans, and largely treated as settled fact. Every credit market accepts that an individual loan may not be repaid; this is ordinary, priced risk. The high-risk claim, however, is applied to whole segments – the informal trader, the gig economy earner whose income is steady but split across several accounts, the remote worker paid by an overseas client into a fintech FX wallet. What the assessment establishes is not whether they are likely to repay, but how they fit into an arbitrary segment. Having spent years building decisioning systems for this market, my thesis is a specific one: “high-risk” does not mean “no credit” – it simply requires that the lender embrace alternative datasets to price the risk appropriately.
This is not a criticism of the institutions that built their frameworks around collateral and documentation; those were rational responses to the tools available at the time. When data is scarce, prudence means defaulting to the status quo. The limitation is not that this approach is wrong, but that it leaves a blind spot – excluding fundamentally sound borrowers whose economic lives simply are not captured on the bank’s ledger. A market trader who has moved consistent, growing volumes of cash through mobile money for three years is not, in any meaningful sense, unknowable. Their financial behaviour is observable and patterned; it simply occurs outside the traditional banking system, rendering it invisible to conventional underwriting.
This is the gap technology is now positioned to close – not by replacing institutional judgment, but by augmenting it. When AI-driven analysis is applied rigorously to the financial behaviour these borrowers generate, a far more complete picture of their repayment ability emerges – and a meaningful share presents a risk profile that compares favourably with segments the traditional system has long considered safe. The “high-risk” label, applied broadly to an entire category of borrower, was never a risk pricing tool so much as the limit of what the available tools could see.
For banks, this is the opportunity to extend capital with confidence beyond the borrowers who fit their stringent criteria. Nigerian banks are highly liquid; the constraint on credit growth has rarely been capital, but the ability to assess and price the borrowers who sit outside the traditional file. Close that gap, and the whole ecosystem strengthens: banks grow their loan books into segments they have long wanted to serve, and the real economy gets the capital it needs to expand.
This is precisely what we focus on at Mathesis Analytics: building AI-powered credit decisioning that gives lenders a fuller, more defensible picture of the individuals long excluded as high-risk when they were simply misjudged. The Nigerian credit gap has never been a non-lendable population problem, but one of incomplete visibility. By unifying varied data sources and partnering with the institutions that hold the capital and scale to move the market, we translate out-of-ecosystem behaviour into reliable, bank-grade risk scores. Closing this gap is one of the clearest, highest-leverage opportunities in Nigerian financial services today.
Winston Osuchukwu is the founder & CEO of Mathesis Analytics
