This week, it was announced that Doshi, a cornerstone of Kenya's hardware and construction sector, joined the tabb network. To many, this is a routine partnership.
To those who understand the deep-seated fractures in African B2B commerce, it represents something far more significant: a live demonstration of how we can finally solve a three-sided market failure, one that has held our economies back for generations.
The problem is systemic and tragically simple. On one side, suppliers such as Doshi have been forced to become unsecured banks. Extending credit to customers is a survival tactic, but it risks their own balance sheets. One bad debt can wipe out the margin from 10 good customers. They are in the business of distribution, not risk underwriting.
On the second side, SMEs, the bedrock of our economy, are perpetually starved of working capital. They have the orders and the ambition, but not the upfront cash to buy the bulk inventory that would make them profitable and competitive. They are forced into a high-cost, low-volume cycle.
On the third side, traditional banks have retreated. The economics of unsecured SME lending are broken, high acquisition costs, opaque use of funds, and perceived high risk lead to impossible interest rates or outright retreat. The result? A $350 billion financing gap that stifles growth, innovation, and employment across Africa.
At tabb, we asked a different question. Instead of creating another high-interest lender, what if we built the infrastructure that makes the entire system work? What if we could align the incentives so that banks win, suppliers win, and SMEs win simultaneously?
Our model takes inspiration from the great payment networks. Visa did not become a bank; it built the rails that allowed banks to connect to consumers and merchants securely and at scale. We are building the analogous rails for B2B trade credit.
Here’s how it works with Doshi:
They join the tabb network and offer their customers "Pay with tabb." An SME gets a revolving credit line from a partner bank, usable across all network suppliers.
When an SME buys from Doshi, Doshi receives 95-98 percent of the payment within 24 hours. Their cash flow is instant, and the customer's credit risk is removed from their books.
The SME repays the bank over 30-90 days, interest-free, aligning repayment with their business cycle. The bank earns a return from a small discount Doshi provides for immediate payment: a common, centuries-old practice we’ve systematised into a scalable, low-risk asset.
This is not charity or subsidy. It is a superior economic model powered by network effects. Every supplier that joins makes the network more valuable for every SME and every bank.
The data generated creates better risk models, which unlocks more capital, attracting more suppliers, a virtuous cycle that compounds value.
The Doshi partnership is our first major proof point in the critical construction sector. It shows that the demand for this infrastructure is urgent and real. It proves that when you remove the friction of broken credit, you do not just help one business, you catalyse an entire ecosystem.
The task ahead is vast, but the path is clear. We must move beyond stop-gap loans and build the foundational financial infrastructure that African commerce has always lacked. We are not just financing inventory; we are financing ambition, potential, and the collective ascent of the continent's entrepreneurs.
The rails are being laid. Welcome aboard.
The writer is the CEO and Co-Founder of tabb, a company building standardised trade credit infrastructure for Africa.
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