Story of progress with Advancly: Enabling growth with credit

From Lagos to Johannesburg to Nairobi, Africa is teeming with the spirit of entrepreneurship.   Whether   they   run   technology   startups,   traditional   industry businesses or small neighbourhood kiosks, African entrepreneurs play a significant role in driving economic growth and development on the continent.

Africa has the propensity to be a booming marketplace for credit as it is home to a vast  population  of  entrepreneurs  and  consumers  who,  through  credit,  can  be empowered to build better businesses and live better lives. Current figures show that 65% of African Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) do not survive beyond their first 3 years of existence because they cannot access capital to grow and scale their businesses – a statistic that could be greatly improved if these entrepreneurs had access to credit-for-scale.

Advancly is a Credit-Tech company that is working to close the lending gap in Africa and emerging markets by innovating access to credit for aggregators who extend financial value to consumers. Advancly empowers these businesses with debt capital and embedded finance, through which they can enable their ecosystems to access and utilise credit to grow. In short, Advancly is Powering Progress with Credit.

“We  believe  that,  when  used  right,  credit  can  unlock  the  potential  of  African entrepreneurs,  fuel  innovation,  and  drive  economic  growth”,  says  Lotanna  Julian, CEO of Advancly. “Our ultimate goal is to inject $500 million in debt into creditworthy MSMEs in Africa and emerging markets by 2026. This is why we look to partner specifically with organisations who, like us, are working to build the rail tracks for a modern and more robust financial ecosystem in Africa and emerging markets. Our progress partners are responsible lenders, who operate with a mindset that is centred around the consumer and their growth.”

Advancly has been in existence for two years and has, during that time, cultivated meaningful and impactful relationships with their “Progress Partners”, which they are documenting in a series of short documentaries.

“We believe very strongly in the power of storytelling and we intend to use it to build strong narratives around the impact we’re making and we intend to make through our work”, says David Oyawoye, Brand & Marketing lead at Advancly. “Numbers are great  but  we  are  also  driven  by  real-life  stories  of the people we’ve worked with, whose lives and businesses have been transformed by credit.”

The first instalment of this series of impact stories follows the impact of Advancly’s relationship with CredPal, a BNPL tech company pioneering consumer credit financing in Africa.