Supply Chain FinTech Breeze teams with Finverity

Nigerian startup Breeze has partnered with the British supply chain finance company Finesse to accelerate its mission to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa with access to trade finance.

The startup has been selected for Finverity’s Emerging Leaders Programme, which aims to nurture the next generation of local trade finance leaders in emerging markets, according to a Monday (Oct 31) press release.

“The Emerging Leaders Program was created to equip tomorrow’s leaders with the tools and knowledge required to partner with global institutions and thereby provide more access to cheaper financing with fewer headaches,” Finverity’s Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer Alex Fenechiu said in the release. “It is precisely these institutions that have tasked us with identifying and nurturing organizations that can really make an impact in their local markets.”

As part of the program, Finverity will provide Breeze with resources such as its supply chain financing platform, introductions to debt capital providers, legal infrastructure templates and best practices, according to the press release.

Breeze aims to distribute capital to SMEs in Africa, solving the continent’s “$120 billion annual trade finance deficit” that exists because the majority of African banks’ trade finance goes to larger companies, even though the majority of trade participants in the region are SMEs. release stated.

“This partnership gives us the necessary fuel and support as we strengthen our presence in Nigeria,” Breeze CEO Chimenem Nnwoka said in the release. “Our partnership with Finverity enables us to offer modular supply chain finance products tailored to the specific needs of our customers.”

In related news, as PYMNTS reported on October 18, projects aimed to build a more autonomous pan-african economymany of them under the rubric of the African Union, seek to secure a more prosperous future for Africans.