Sparkle Business wants to help SMEs in Nigeria grow

Sparkle, a digital bank providing financial, lifestyle and business support services to Nigerians, has launched Sparkle Business.

The new service will help small businesses and SMEs access the much-needed products and services to grow their enterprises digitally. It will be accessed via Sparkle's existing mobile application.

Sparkle Business features include:

• Inventory and Invoice Management: To help businesses maintain control over their payment requests and overall operations
  
• Payment Gateway Service: To manage single and bulk payments more seamlessly
  
• Tax Advisory/Calculations: To help evaluate business turnover and calculate tax filings
  
• Payroll/Employee Management: To manage employee payments and benefits effectively without error or human interventions, and much more.

The platform has been designed with mobile-first, digital native entrepreneurs and companies in mind, who need to run all aspects of their enterprises, at the touch of a button.

Since launch in 2020, Sparkle has grown a community built on trust and transparency, helping thousands to experience a new, easy, stress-free approach to organizing their finances.

In Nigeria, SMEs contribute 48% of national GDP, account for 96% of businesses and 84% of employment, however they often face challenges with making strategic decisions due to lack of data for key insights into important issues that affect their business.

Built by the Sparkle team to support Nigeria’s millions of SMEs as they scale, Sparkle Business will bring all essential business transactions onto one safe and simple to use platform.

Commenting on the launch, Uzoma Dozie, Founder and CEO of Sparkle, said, “SMEs are the largest employer of labour in Nigeria but are lacking access to basic services that will help their businesses. We have introduced Sparkle Business as a one stop shop, to help individuals to launch their businesses digitally, while meeting existing SMEs’ pain points, and allowing them to pivot to the next level of success.

We have been afforded this opportunity due to our extensive research and access to data, which allows us to know what exactly SMEs are looking for. We are truly excited about the initial results from the beta test and are looking forward to impactful results for small businesses in the near future.”

Sparkle Business is live now and can be accessed by current Sparkle users who have registered businesses in Nigeria. To register, individuals will need to have a personal Sparkle account, Tax Identification Number [TIN], and an email address connected to their TIN.  

Uzoma, having worked in retail banking for over 20 years, has unrivalled experience when it comes to building banking products for businesses. According to him, “Sparkle was built to allow individuals to be free; Sparkle Business is an extension of this, so that business owners can reduce friction when it comes to important administrative transactions.

We’re excited to roll out our new products and services, and to continue to grow an increasingly busy and entrepreneurial group of business owners who don’t want to accept that banking halls and physical paper trails are the only means of conducting business in Nigeria”.

Sparkle is a lifestyle and financial ecosystem providing seamless solutions to Nigeria’s retailers, SMEs and individuals. Leveraging technology and data, Sparkle is leading a new generation of digital only businesses licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Sparkle’s mission is to help Nigerian’s fulfil their potential by democratizing to valuable solutions for their business and personal needs. Starting with current accounts and savings accounts, Sparkle will co-create with its customers and collaborate with its partners to improve value-add services and increase its user base.

Current partners include Network International, Visa, Microsoft and PwC. Sparkle is founded upon the values of trust, transparency, freedom, inclusivity, simplicity and personalization.