The $500,000 was disbursed from MASSIF, a fund it manages for the Dutch government. Set up in 2006, MASSIF supports access to financial services such as savings and loans for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises. The fund is active mostly in low-income countries, supporting MSMEs, agricultural value chains, access to basic goods, and enterprises owned by women and youth. MASSIF has a portfolio of EUR 545 million (USD 647 million) as of December 2019.

According to Jeroen Harteveld, MASSIF’s fund manager, “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 South 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.

Nomanini has offices in Kenya as well as in South Africa and has received investments from Goodwell Investments, which also 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.

“Nomanini continues to put the livelihoods of MSME retailers at the centre of our focus,” said Vahid Monadjem, CEO of Nomanini. “COVID-19 served to underscore the importance of these entrepreneurs for their communities as well as their lack of access to financial tools to provide resilience in this time of crisis. With FMO on board, we are looking forward to expanding our partnerships to include more like-minded financial service providers.”