Broadcasting
Four Ways FMCG Distributors Can Use Embedded Finance to Grow Trade within Supply Chains
By Ope Adeoye, Chief Plumber, One Pipe
You have a shop in the neighbourhood or market, selling things like milk, noodles, sugar, etc. Now imagine that your plug for Nestle, Unilever or Flours Mill of Nigeria (FMN) products provides you with a special bank account. “That’s absurd, why?” You say. Let’s take a step back a little…
This distributor has probably done business with you for five, ten years or more, knows your business, your purchase, sales and payment patterns, and can in fact, offer financial services better suited to your business.
This is because they know more about you than perhaps the big-name bank you use down the road. For example, when you need to expand your business from one to two shops, your bank is unable to give you the loan to help you do that because, frankly, it can’t tell whether or not you are into what you claim is your business. Your bank statement does not contain enough information about your business to help them decide and they don’t know what you sell daily, weekly, etc. Or the margins you get on each supply you receive and sell. But, your distributor provides you goods, maybe weekly or even daily, knows the volumes you move and how promptly or not you make payments. Also knows the margins in each product. Just like you, they know the business.
If the distributor could finance you to grow your business, you will buy more from him. And sell more. And she in turn will pull more volume from Nestle, P&G, etc. Win-win-win for everyone.
The spoiler? That distributor is not a bank and can hardly do more than give you goods on credit, occasionally. She definitely doesn’t have the liquidity to cater to all of your growth needs.
That’s where embedded finance comes in.
A Forbes article describes embedded finance as “the use of financial tools or services — such as lending or payment processing — by a non-financial provider,” and expanding this, the end goal is to offer customers a payment experience that is likely to keep them loyal and continue doing business through that platform.
Here are four ways the FMCG industry can utilise embedded finance, to offer financial services throughout their supply chain, without having to grow through the overhead of becoming banks themselves.
Credit line to keep goods moving
The supply chain as at today is mostly analogue and it is hard to accurately know in micro details, what role every participant has played. To be clear, a manufacturer or distributor would have records of how much inventory it sold or not, but does it know what moved across different categories of distributors and down to retailers? Not likely. And definitely, not accurately.
Digitizing the workflow creates an integrated ecosystem in which every player becomes visible in the supply chain. This is especially important for players closer to the bottom of the chain, many of whom the FMCG manufacturers would have no direct records of, yet are active participants in getting goods down the last mile and to consumers.
Many of these could rely on physical bookkeeping to track their finances, but when they need a credit line for goods from the same company, showing a track record becomes challenging. Even worse when they buy their inventory through layers and layers of middlemen and sales agents.
A finbox article emphasised that “The digital integration of smaller distributors and local stores through payment solutions, accounting apps, and banking solutions will generate standardized data on transactions within the chain, leading to increased transparency at every stage – tracking goods, inventory management, and sales.”
In essence, offering digital tools that help a retailer to spend, receive and track their money – embedded finance, could allow a 3rd party (or even a bank) have the visibility and confidence to step in to offer credit lines that support the retailer with goods or services (as the case may be), based on their transaction history, which would have been recorded on the platform.
In practical sense: If a shop owner usually buys N20,000 worth of inventory every week, consistently, and a bank or lender has visibility into this, they are able to step in to help increase the basket size to N30,000.
Needless to say, the more goods the retailer is able to sell, the more the FMCG distributor or manufacturer itself stands to make. With embedded finance – inserting the services of the bank or lender into the (now digital) exchanges between retailer and distributor, we are now able to determine based on transactions; who is qualified for what level of credit line. It becomes possible to have data driven decision making that keeps retailers in business and possibly expand, and invariably, the company at the top of this chain keeps winning.
Insurance on sales
Insurance is often overlooked in this part of the world and when offered to people, it is not unusual to hear; ‘loss is not my portion’. Yet, losses occur, and perhaps more frequently than many would like to admit.
However, there are instances where insurance is not optional, especially for transnational movement of goods.
As part of the supply chain experience, insurance protection can be embedded within the solution offered by the FMCG manufacturer or distributor. As usual, an insurance provider needs historical data to determine risk and price it appropriately. The digitization effort creates this trail and makes this possible.
In practical terms: It’s not uncommon for drivers of delivery vans to drive off with goods and cash. Or get waylaid by urchins. Embedded insurance protects against this possibility. But requires digitization to be effective.
There are even more interesting insurance products that can be designed: Imagine a retailer getting money back for inventory they were unable to sell due to external factors? Yes, possible.
A financial bouquet to do more
The account number that ties any dealer in the supply chain to the embedded finance solution, can also be used for any regular banking service. So, when the delivery of Indomie Noodles comes from Dufil and the distributor needs to pay the haulage company, they are able to do so through the embedded finance solution provided by Dufil. They would not need to log into a separate bank account, then make a transfer, or worse still, hand over a wad of cash.
Payment for warehouses, store rent, utilities and even salaries of employees can be done from that account provided by the FMCG company.
A distributor can make all business related expenses from that single account, making it easy to accurately determine what costs are associated with that business, and how profitable or not it has been.
The good part of this? Because the account is provided by the FMCG company or Distributor, they usually have negotiated “corporate pricing” with the bank or financial service providers… and because they are not in this to make money from banking services, per se, they are able to pass those gains down to the retailer in the form of cheaper services, etc. Imagine sending money for less or buying airtime at a discount because the margins of the bank have been passed to the retailer in the form of incentives.
Integrated payment experiences to eliminate cash
Every distributor and manufacturer knows that cash handling is a big problem and cost. Retailer receives cash from his own customers. Retailer pays the wholesaler or distributor in cash. Everyone has to count, reconcile and move that cash around. Someone pays for the insurance on that cash, someone pays the cashless penalty on that cash, Etc.
With an embedded bank account, the distributor can in one-click take payments from the account of the retailer when the time comes to pay.
With an embedded account, customers can pay directly into the account of the retailer versus cash. And these days, they can do that with either cards or transfers.
And the incentive for the Retailer to push this? Every inflow and outflow from that account helps him to create the required data trail through which he can get the credit line with which he can start his 2nd shop or buy more inventory. An unending hamster wheel of growth..
In conclusion
Embedded finance solutions are ready for deployment within days and do not require building from scratch. OnePipe makes it possible for non-financial institutions like FMCG manufacturers and distributors, to offer financial services without becoming fully fledged providers.
From facilitating credit to offering investment possibilities, each possibility is in itself a full time job, with requirements varying from tech to operations, regulation, dealing with things like fraud, compliance etc, yet, possible to offer as a single suite through embedded finance. The experiences for customers keep them integral in the supply chain, and the implementing FMCG expands revenue without ‘investing heavily’ in the tech to achieve this. What is there not to love about embedded finance?
David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has declared that no Nigerian artiste has more hit songs than him, challenging his peers to a hit-for-hit contest with $1 million at stake.
The Afrobeats superstar, made the declaration during a recent online interaction with streamer Davrel, where he expressed confidence in the strength of his music catalogue.
Key Highlights:
- Davido says he is ready to stake $1 million in a hit-for-hit battle.
- The singer claims no Nigerian artiste has more hit songs than him.
- His challenge could reignite comparisons with Wizkid, Burna Boy and Olamide.
- No major artiste mentioned in the debate had accepted the challenge as of the time of filing.
“I will put up a $1M on the table. I will do it versus anybody. A million dollars cash, nobody has more hits than me,” Davido said.
The declaration is likely to renew the long-running debate among Afrobeats fans over which Nigerian artiste has the strongest catalogue of commercially successful songs.
Davido, whose career spans more than a decade, has recorded several commercially successful songs, including Fall, If, FIA, Risky, Blow My Mind, Unavailable, Assurance and Feel.
His claim could set up a potential catalogue battle with some of Nigeria’s biggest music stars, including Wizkid, Burna Boy, Olamide, Runtown and Tekno.
The statement also recalls the hit-for-hit debate involving Burna Boy during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.
Burna Boy had called for a competitive song battle, while former Mavin Records artiste Reekado Banks reportedly expressed interest. Burna Boy, however, rejected him as an opponent.
Six years later, Davido’s $1 million challenge has brought the idea back into the spotlight.
As of the time of filing, none of the major artistes indirectly referenced by Davido had publicly accepted the challenge.
Whether the proposed contest becomes reality remains uncertain.
For now, Davido has made his position clear and is willing to attach $1 million to his claim that no contemporary Nigerian artiste has a stronger catalogue of hit songs.
Nigeria’s pay-TV industry is facing one of its toughest periods in years as consumers increasingly migrate from conventional antenna and decoder-based television services to cheaper, more flexible and on-demand streaming platforms
The shift is putting pressure on established operators, such as MultiChoice, owners of DStv and GOtv; StarTimes and other traditional pay-TV providers, whose business models have long depended on recurring monthly subscriptions as per report by Business Hallmark.
According to Business Hallmark, the changing consumer behaviour is being driven by a combination of factors, including demographic transition, rising subscription costs, declining household purchasing power, improved internet access and the growing popularity of streaming services that allow viewers to pay for specific content or watch programmes at their convenience.
Streaming platforms are steadily expanding their appeal, offering consumers access to movies, sports (especially football matches and wrestling bouts), local content and international programs through smartphones, smart televisions and other internet-enabled devices.
Also, the proliferation of affordable data packages and connected devices has lowered the barrier to entry, allowing consumers to bypass traditional decoders altogether and consume content directly online.
Three of the major factors behind the changing behaviour of Nigerian television consumers are growing internet access, economic squeeze and changing demography.
Pay-TV subscriptions, once regarded by many households as a relatively affordable source of entertainment, are now competing with several other demands on disposable income.
For instance, entertainment spending are increasingly being subjected to tougher scrutiny with household budgets under pressure from food, tuition, transportation, electricity, housing and other essential costs.
Business Hallmark checks revealed that frequent price reviews by MultiChoice Nigeria’s have pushed the firm’s products beyond the reach of many Nigerians.
One of its products, GOtv, initially designed for average Nigerians, has six packages, namely GOtv Supa Plus, GOtv Supa, Gotv Max, GOtv Jolli, GOtv Jinja and GOtv Smallie.
GOtv Supa Plus with over 85+ channels currently goes for a monthly subscription fee of N16,800; GOtv Supa N11,400; Gotv Max N8,500; GOtv Jolli N5,800; GOtv Jinja N3,900, while GOtv Smallie subscribers choose between the N1,900/monthly, N5,100/quarterly and N15,000/annually options.
Similarly, following multiple tariff reviews, DStv Premium currently goes for N44,500 monthly; DStv Compact Plus N30,000; DStv Compact N19,000; DStv Confam N11,000; DStv Yanga N6,000 and DStv Padi N4,400.
On the other hand, StarTimes, which serves its customers through antenna signal transmission and satellite transmission, has only three bouquets, Nova, Basic, and Classic.
While Classic, the most expensive bouquet on the StarTimes’ shelf currently cost N6,000 monthly, Basic costs N4,000, while Nova costs N2,100.
While speaking to our correspondent on the major shift, some consumers explained that the choice is no longer between different pay-TV providers but between maintaining a television subscription and cancelling it altogether.
Eighty-two Nigerians, representing 68% of the 120 Pay-TV subscribers, who participated in an online survey conducted by Business Hallmark, said they opted for less expensive and more flexible alternatives, including YouTube and a growing range of streaming platforms, using smartphones, laptops, smart televisions and other internet-enabled devices to access entertainment.Geographic Reference
According to the respondents, the shift towards streaming lies partly in its flexibility. Instead of waiting for a program to be broadcast at a scheduled time, viewers now search for specific films, series, sporting events or other contents, which can be watched immediately, or downloaded to be watched or listened to later.
“I now watch contents when I want, across multiple devices, without necessarily being tied to the traditional channel and time-based television experience”, said Tolu Olamiti, an accountant in an audit firm in Lagos.
Another factor that is fueling the exodus from pay-TV model is the growing youth population. Checks revealed that online streaming is particularly attractive to phone-savvy younger viewers, whose television consumption habits are markedly different from those of previous generations.
While underage children watch cartoons and educational programs mostly from their parents or older siblings internet-enabled gadgets, teenagers and adults now watch news, sports programs and films through live streaming or download preferred programs to be watched later.
“With N200 data, I can download several new films to be watched at my convenience, instead of the old films, which providers always repeat on their channels. I also listen to music through out the day without worrying about electricity as my phone can go 2 days after full charge”, said Chukwuemeka Ibe, a student of Lagos State University (LASU).
In the same vein, access to fast and cheap internet plans is helping to drive the streaming surge. For instance, a subscriber can get a daily 1G data plan on the MTN Nigeria platform for just N200. This data plan can be used to download up to 1,000MB movies, or for streaming several hours of music online.
According to official statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), internet consumption in Nigeria reached 13.2 million terabytes in 2025, representing a 35 per cent increase from 2024, while average monthly data usage per active subscriber increased from 3.3 gigabytes in January 2023 to 7.4 gigabytes by May 2025.Geographic Reference
The NCC data indicates growing reliance on mobile internet services and digital platforms across the country with active internet subscriptions rising from 169.3 million in January 2025 to 182.2 million by January 2026.
Also, active internet subscriptions also surpassed 142 million.
Before the advent of internet, traditional pay-TV operators had ruled the television viewing industry largely through channel packages, exclusive content and decoder penetration. However, the rise of streaming has fundamentally altered the competitive landscape of Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
Fueled by the spread of smart devices and improved internet connectivity, streaming companies have been able to compete with traditional TV and radio providers through original programming, on-demand access, convenient timing and increased personalized viewing experiences.
A subscriber, who previously needed a satellite dish or digital terrestrial television decoder to access premium entertainment, can now use a smartphone or smart television and an internet connection.
The proliferation of affordable smartphones has further accelerated the process. Mobile phones have become entertainment devices for millions of Nigerians, particularly younger consumers, who spend more time watching short-form videos, movies and online programs than conventional television.
Also, social media platforms have become important competitors for consumers’ limited attention. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other digital platforms provide enormous volumes of free or relatively inexpensive video content, forcing traditional broadcasters to compete not only for subscribers but also for viewers’ time.
Several pay-TV subscribers, who spoke to our correspondent on the matter, said providers can no longer justify the traditional model of paying a fixed monthly fee for hundreds of channels they rarely watch.
Awba-Ofemili Development Union (ADU) Health Committee has officially announced the launch of the Awba-Ofemili Health Awareness Campaign 2026, a community-wide initiative designed to promote preventive healthcare, disease awareness, early detection, health education, and healthy living across Awba-Ofemili.
Awba-Ofemili Health Awareness Campaign
The campaign, themed “Beyond Elu-Ulee (Buruli Ulcer): Building a Healthier Awba-Ofemili,” will be held on Thursday, 17 September 2026, at the Civic Centre, Awba-Ofemili, beginning at 9:00 a.m.
The programme builds on the success of the committee’s maiden Elu-Ulee (Buruli Ulcer) Awareness Campaign, which raised awareness on Buruli ulcer and strengthened community engagement on preventive healthcare.
According to the Chairman of the ADU Health Committee, Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, KSM, the 2026 campaign represents a significant expansion of the committee’s health intervention agenda.
“This campaign is about moving beyond awareness to action. We want to deepen community health education, encourage early detection of preventable diseases, strengthen school health initiatives, promote First Aid awareness, and build sustainable partnerships that will improve the health and well-being of our people,” he said.
The 2026 campaign will feature community health education, free basic health screening, school health support, First Aid awareness programmes, and stakeholder engagement with healthcare professionals, development partners, and community organisations.
The committee has called on sons and daughters of Awba-Ofemili, residents, friends of the community, corporate organisations, philanthropic individuals, NGOs, healthcare institutions, and development partners to support the initiative through financial contributions and strategic partnerships.
To support the implementation of the campaign, the ADU Health Committee has opened a dedicated fundraising channel through Fidelity Bank Plc, with donations payable to Awba-Ofemili Education Volunteers (Account No. 6060490921).
The Committee appealed to all supporters to use “HEALTH FUND” as the transfer narration so that contributions can be properly recorded and accounted for under the ADU Health Committee Health Fund.
Secretary of the ADU Health Committee, Mr. Cornelius Nwakonobi, emphasized that every contribution would make a meaningful impact.
“No donation is too small. Every contribution will support community health education, medical outreach, school health programmes, First Aid support, and preventive healthcare initiatives. Together, we can build a healthier, stronger, and more resilient Awba-Ofemili,” he stated.
The ADU Health Committee reaffirmed its commitment to working with government agencies, healthcare professionals, development organisations, the Nigerian Red Cross, community stakeholders, and the Awba-Ofemili diaspora to advance sustainable health interventions in the community.
For partnership enquiries, sponsorship, or additional information, interested organisations and individuals are encouraged to contact the ADU Health Committee Secretariat.
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