Commercial Bank of Africa to provide SCF solution for Kenyan SMEs

The supply chain financing solution will allow suppliers access early payment against their invoices with no recourse to credit appraisal. Commercial Bank of Africa officials say the solution is intended to spur growth among small and medium sized enterprises by availing working capital to enable them to finance new projects.

Corporate buyers will approve and submit their supplier invoices to Commercial Bank of Africa through an online platform. Commercial Bank of Africa will then facilitate immediate payments to suppliers with recourse to the corporate buyers. The bank has leveraged technology and teamed up with a provider of financial guarantees, to address some of the key concerns affecting business.

The solution was developed by Kenya-based fintech Ennovative Capital and it provides a marketplace for small and medium sized enterprises supplying goods and services to creditworthy buyers to trade their approved invoices without the need for the small and medium sized suppliers to undergo credit assessment. This structured financing model allows participating small and medium sized enterprises to incur debt only when borrowing for expansion, rather than on routine working capital.