In days sales outstanding.
Kenya’s SMB (Small and Medium Businesses) sector is the backbone of the economy. For decades, small suppliers have been caught in a cash flow trap not of their making. Long payment cycles, dominated by large corporate buyers, have left SMBs waiting anything from 60 to 90 days for money they’ve already earned. This has a knock on effect: SMBs can’t pay their staff and suppliers leading to shortages for the corporate buyer.
This supply chain dilemma offers rich opportunities for financial institutions to innovate and open new revenue streams. Cellulant partnered with Citi and Visa to unlock this opportunity with Citi Optimised Pay
Citi is one of the world’s leading global banks, supporting corporate payments and working capital strategies for clients across Kenya and beyond. In Kenya, Citi serves large corporate buyers managing complex accounts payable operations , businesses that depend on reliable, efficient payment infrastructure to maintain supplier relationships and keep their supply chains moving.
A Market Full Of Opportunity Waiting To Be Unlocked
Kenya’s SMBs make up 80% of the market, meaning Citi’s corporate clients depend on them to keep their supply chains moving. But the payment solutions available weren’t built for this market. Corporate buyers had no real Africa-first solution to pay their suppliers quickly and effortlessly while maintaining their own cash flow. Citi needed a payments partner with the local infrastructure to make faster, more flexible supplier payments a reality in Kenya.
We partnered with Citi and Visa to launch Citi Optimised Pay to give Citi’s corporate clients a single, simplified way to pay their SMB suppliers across Kenya, without changing how they already operate.
Our Tingg platform sits at the heart of the solution. Corporate buyers pay using Citi Visa commercial cards through their existing payment process. Suppliers don’t need to accept card payments for this to work, and they don’t need to wait weeks to get paid. Tingg processes a corporate card payment into a payout delivered directly to a supplier’s bank account or mobile wallet the moment the buyer pays.
The joint partnership between Citi, Visa, and Cellulant delivered measurable change on both sides of the transaction:
Citi Optimised Pay unlocks the rich opportunity offered by Supply Chain Finance. Now, Citi can offer corporate clients a payments solution built for the realities of the Kenyan market,one that strengthens supplier relationships, reduces payment complexity, and works for both sides of the supply chain.
