MSME Africa

How MSME Africa Turned its Platform into a Business Engine

MSME Africa was born out of the belief that Nigeria’s small business owners, and early-stage ventures, deserved a platform built just for them. Not just a website for news, but a place to find opportunities, gain visibility, and access the tools to grow. In a country where access to capital, information, and support is sometimes limited to the few, MSME Africa set out to try and level the playing field. They wanted to amplify the voices of small businesses, as a strategy for economic inclusion.

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But for all its purpose and ambition, the journey to sustainability was anything but straightforward. One of MSME Africa’s first priorities was to build their website. The platform needed more than just better aesthetics; it needed to perform. And so, with NAMIP’s support, MSME achieved this by upgrading to a better theme, improving mobile responsiveness, cleaning up navigation, and tightening the overall user experience. They also included analytics tools and push notifications to help track user behaviour and boost engagement. A WhatsApp widget made it easier for readers to stay connected to the community, while Wordfence security was added to prevent a repeat of a past malware attack.

The results came fast, Google AdSense earnings increased by more than 600% after the upgrade. More broadly, MSME Africa’s total revenue grew by over 120% from 2022 to 2023, before adjusting slightly in 2024 due to external currency challenges, still maintaining a 107% increase compared to 2022. The numbers tell a story of growth driven by product clarity, improved infrastructure, and community engagement.

From Platform to Learning Ground: MSME Academy

With the technical foundation in place, MSME Africa turned to something new, digital learning. The MSME Academy launched in mid-2024 as a direct response to what the community had been asking for. Through surveys, MSME identified the most sought-after topics which included grant writing, financial literacy, digital marketing, and business development for their audience of micro, small and medium-scale business owners and enthusiasts. With these audience insights, they built a library of relevant, practical courses leveraging on their network of MSME experts. The Academy was hosted on a fully integrated Learning Management System (LMS) with payment gateways, tracking features, assessments, and certificates. By the end of 2024, the Academy had sold over 300 courses.

The Newsletter That Became a Business Channel

The newsletter, MSME Pulse, emerged as another high-impact product, one inspired by lessons from a NAMIP study tour to South Africa. Designed as a weekly roundup of opportunities and updates, it wasn’t just valuable for readers; it became a strong revenue channel too. MSME Africa Pulse currently has over 83,000 subscribers and is ranked as one of the top 5 publications on substack based in Nigeria as at March 2025. Through sponsored content and ad placements, the newsletter became a reliable revenue source and now plays a central role in MSME Africa’s content-to-commerce pipeline, driving both engagement and income.

More Than Media, A Connected Ecosystem

The bigger story here isn’t just about new features. What MSME Africa has built is a fully connected ecosystem, an environment where tools, content, and community all work together.

The platform now links users to opportunities via partnerships with various ecosystem players and actors.

It supports real-time dialogue through a WhatsApp community of over 7,000 members.

It hosts e-learning through the Academy and drives monetization via MSME Africa Pulse, Website Banners, Sponsored Contents and branded content packages.

One of those packages, the Brand Partnership Bouquet, bundles digital exposure, event visibility, and community engagement into a single offering. It’s built for businesses that want direct access to MSME Africa’s audience, and it works. From January to October 2024 alone, the bouquet contributed between 11% and 27% of monthly revenue. Its consistent performance shows the value partners see in integrated access to MSME Africa’s growing audience base.

Key Learnings from the Journey

Build for the user: Every technical change was made with real user needs in mind, and it paid off in both engagement and revenue.

Let the community lead: From course topics to promotional reach, community insight helped shape product direction.

Think in systems, not silos: The platform, the Academy, the newsletter they all reinforce each other.

What Comes Next

With a strong foundation in place, the focus now is growth. MSME Africa is looking to streamline internal processes, scale the Academy, and unlock more value from its existing products. There’s also a long-term goal to reach more users across Africa by refining what already works and building on the momentum.

What started as a modest platform is now a functional, revenue-generating digital business ecosystem, one designed not just to inform, but to equip entrepreneurs with the tools, knowledge, and access they need to thrive.