Iyke Idukpaye: Much of Information on the Internet, Not for African Small Businesses

Iyke Idukpaye is the Country Lead of OZE Nigeria Ltd and has more than two decades of multinational experience in Banking, Strategy, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Iyke is an alumnus of the University of Benin, Strathclyde Business School in Scotland, and City University of London both in the United Kingdom. While in the UK, he was the Marketing and Strategy Projects Manager for an arm of global outsourcing giant, SERCO Group. Prior to leading OZÉ in Nigeria, Iyke founded “Dispacha”, an on-demand delivery platform which was Nigeria’s first completely online delivery service. Iyke was also the Group Business Integration Executive at one of Nigeria’s biggest banks with subsidiaries across Africa

Who are the promoters of OZÉ and when was it founded?
OZE was founded in 2018 byMeghan McCormick and Dave Emnett as an innovative way to track the performance of small business entrepreneurs who had undergone training . OZE is supported by the Mastercard Foundation, Google, MIT Legatum Center and Harvard’s Innovation Lab where it was awarded the top Innovation prize in 2018. Additional prestigious awards include the MIT Fintech Award for Emerging Markets, the Zambezi Prize sponsored by Mastercard Foundation, and the Inaugural Inclusive Fintech 50. OZÉ was accelerated by Google’s Launchpad program.

What is the mission of the company?
OZÉ is on a mission to help small businesses grow. We envision a world where every small business in Africa has access to the tools, information, and capital they need to thrive. Let’s start with tools. Today, many small businesses are keeping their financial records on paper or not at all. That makes it hard to make data-driven decisions or understand how your business is performing. We give small businesses access to tools like the OZÉ Business App which makes it easy for businesses to track sales, expenses, and customer information digitally. It’s then presented on an easy- to -understand dashboard.

Today, there is a lot of information available on the internet, but not much of it is tailored for African small businesses. We provide tailored recommendations, reports, and business education through OZÉ Coach. Also, many small businesses find it hard to get a loan for their business. We help small businesses become loan-ready and help banks digitize their lending process so that more businesses can access affordable loans.

What is your take about the economic direction of the country after the Pandemic?
I think the country is recovering from the pandemic induced recession that has plagued the entire planet and reduced output and consumption in almost every country and we live in an interdependent world today. So far the government is doing its best to spur consumption through direct intervention by the CBN and various other organs of government. When consumption drives production within the country the impact is seen in GDP growth which is already happening. Even though there are headwinds, I am confident that the focus of the government on ensuring that SMEs perform through new legislation, the various interventions by the CBN and Bank of industry loans will accelerate GDP growth in the longer term, providing it is sustained.

How can OZÉ help the government in the sustainability and growth of the MSMEs sector?
Digitizing transaction activities with OZÉ can increase the efficiency of the MSMEs and therefore reduce their costs of business. Efficient businesses always last longer than inefficient ones. Our business coaching modules educate entrepreneurs on the essentials of business management. With education entrepreneurs can manage their businesses well and stay successful.

In view of the current focus on job creation by the Nigerian Government, how does your platform help government achieve Its job creation objective?
When businesses succeed, industrial output increases as well, and more jobs are created. There is a corresponding drop in unemployment and inflation as economic output overall grows. We all know that the MSMEs are the fundamental core of any nation’s economy. If OZÉ enables the growth of one MSME customer then the business will need additional hands to manage the new growth. This has a ripple effect on government income from taxes as well as direct investment by entrepreneurs into their businesses.

How does OZÉ work and how can one access it?
OZÉ is a mobile-first small business app and software. You can download our Android or iOS App from the Play Store or App Store or access our web app from your laptop or browser. OZE works by allowing you to digitally record your sales and expenses on your phone. The app helps you to send digital receipts and invoices, remind customers to pay what they owe you, access your business dashboard and so much more! If you need some education on business principles, or just want some advice or explanation, an OZÉ coach is just a click/tap away.

What makes OZÉ unique in the market?
OZE is an all-in-one platform where you can learn how to improve your business performance and then access the capital you need to grow your business. OZÉ is the first and only platform to directly provide banks and financial institutions with the ability to assess and provide capital to MSMEs efficiently, affordably, and with exceptionally low risk of default. As a result, entrepreneurs who use OZE are always regarded as good borrowers and receive affordable loans from our banking partners.

What are some of the features of the app?
OZE is a multisided application that links all the major players of the financial ecosystem required for business success in one place and that includes banks, payment service providers, Government agencies, NGOs, corporates and the MSMES.

For banks, the features of the app include access to a platform to track loan portfolio performance, ability to make decisions for loans to MSMEs within minutes of request being made. In addition, and with full integration, banks can whitelist the application to improve their brand and enhance the efficiency of their loan processes as well as achieve full automation of the entire loan process from origination to disbursements and then collections /repayments. For MSMEs users, the features include ability to input a sale or expense in as little as 3 clicks (even if you are offline!), apply for and manage a loan, send and receive payments (coming soon), mark transactions as unpaid or partially paid and send payment reminders, issue a receipt or an invoice and see your performance on a dashboard.

Why is it relevant to a business owner?
It is relevant to a business owner because it helps her to make more money and also to form the habit of keeping records, use data to make better business decisions, keeps her financially organized, enables her to secure financial assistance from any financial institution or organizations that provide assistance to entrepreneurs.

Do you have partners within the financial industry to achieve your goals?
Yes, we have recently commenced partnership with a new generation bank and we are also in talks with a number of tier 1 and 2 banks in the country. Apart from the financial industry we have recently partnered with the Coalition of Associations in Computer Village to provide OZE to thousands of their members who are mainly MSMEs. More partnerships will be announced soon.

What are some of the products the app offers?
We offer enterprise and retail versions of the platform. Enterprise versions are targeted at Banks and organizations such as NGOs who would like to automate their loan or funding processes all the way from candidate or customer selection to fund or loan disbursement. With enterprise version we also automate the process of loan collections and repayment and can be tailored to meet the organization’s needs. For instance, if the bank of industry is going to disburse small loans to MSMEs, the OZÉ platform is the perfect solution to accurately determine candidates who are going to use the money well, be successful and pay back on the loan.

What prospects does it hold for businesses wishing to expand?
OZÉ can help a business manage more than one outlet. Our platinum plan allows an MSME to manage up to 5 stores in real-time as the transactions are happening. So, a business can expand with the same account and see all its business transactions in different locations.

How does OZÉ reduce loan default rates for lenders?
OZÉ entrepreneurs are better borrowers for several reasons: They have better cash flow. They capture a higher percentage of their receivables more quickly. They understand their business performance and can use data to choose what to sell to whom at what price making more profits and growing faster. They receive business education and have access to a business coach if challenges arise. They tend to be more diligent and serious than the average borrower.

OZÉ is better at assessing creditworthiness because we have access to a broad data set and process it, using a machine learning model developed by a PhD Economist from MIT. To date, we have been able to completely avoid defaults since we launched the application a year ago.