B2B e-commerce company, OmniRetail has launched a new digital platform, OmniOne, designed to help fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers scale distribution networks and improve operational visibility across West Africa.
The platform expands OmniRetail’s existing infrastructure, which already supports retailers through its OmniBiz marketplace, by extending digital capabilities to manufacturers, distributors and financial institutions operating within its ecosystem.
OmniRetail currently operates across Nigeria, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
“OmniBiz has earned the trust, built the network, and generated the data that makes OmniOne possible,” said Deepankar Rustagi, founder and CEO of OmniRetail. “Manufacturers, distributors, and financial institutions can now plug into what we have built and scale faster alongside us.”
Addressing Fragmentation in Africa’s FMCG Supply Chain
Despite strong growth in consumer demand, FMCG distribution across Africa remains highly fragmented and reliant on informal channels.
According to data from NielsenIQ, FMCG markets in Nigeria and Kenya grew by 18.1 per cent in value in 2023 compared to the previous year, with traditional trade accounting for 98 per cent of retail activity.
However, the supply chain behind this market remains largely manual, with orders often placed via phone calls or in-person visits, and payments processed through multiple informal channels.
This structure creates inefficiencies, including delayed payments, missed sales opportunities, and limited visibility for manufacturers.
OmniRetail is positioning OmniOne as a solution to these challenges by digitising and connecting key parts of the distribution chain.
Turning Distribution Into a Data-Driven System
OmniOne is not designed to replace OmniBiz, but to complement it by aggregating operational data across the value chain into a single interface for manufacturers.
The platform provides real-time visibility into demand trends, warehouse inventory, distributor activity, and retail sell-through rates.
According to the company, manufacturers using OmniOne can access consolidated performance dashboards covering customer analytics, order volumes, sales trends, lead tracking, and churn patterns.
Distributors, meanwhile, can use the system to manage inventory, check pricing and availability of stock-keeping units (SKUs), process orders, and track deliveries, while also accessing wallet-based payments and credit facilities.
Embedded Finance Integrated Into Trade Operations
A key component of OmniOne is its embedded financial services layer, which integrates credit and payment solutions directly into trade activities.
Through partnerships with more than 14 financial institutions, including banks and fintech companies, the platform provides access to working capital, digital payments, collections, interest-bearing accounts, and point-of-sale solutions.
Credit decisions are based on behavioural and transactional data such as order history, repayment patterns, purchase frequency, and inventory movement, rather than traditional collateral requirements.
This model is intended to improve access to financing for small distributors and retailers who are often excluded from formal credit systems.
Scaling on the Back of Strong Transaction Volumes
The launch comes a year after OmniRetail’s $20 million Series A funding round.
Since its founding in 2019, the company says it now has visibility into more than 500,000 FMCG orders monthly, with transaction volumes estimated at ₦250 billion ($182 million) across 10,000 distributors and 100,000 retailers.
This scale positions OmniRetail among the more established B2B commerce infrastructure players operating in West Africa’s retail ecosystem.
Looking ahead, OmniRetail says it plans to deepen its use of artificial intelligence to strengthen the integration between commerce, finance and data visibility.
The company believes this will further improve decision-making for manufacturers while enhancing operational efficiency across distribution networks.
Talking Points
It is significant that OmniRetail is extending its infrastructure from retail-facing commerce into a broader ecosystem that now includes manufacturers, distributors, and financial institutions through OmniOne.
This move positions the company not just as a B2B marketplace, but as a potential operating system for FMCG distribution across West Africa, where traditional trade still dominates despite growing digital adoption.
At Techparley, we see this as a clear example of how African commerce platforms are evolving from transactional marketplaces into full-stack infrastructure layers that combine trade, data, and embedded finance.
The integration of real-time visibility across inventory, demand, payments, and customer behaviour addresses one of the biggest inefficiencies in FMCG supply chains, which is fragmentation across multiple disconnected actors.
As OmniOne scales, there is an opportunity to deepen ecosystem participation through stronger partnerships with financial institutions and targeted support for smaller distributors who are often excluded from formal credit systems.
With the right execution, OmniRetail could play a defining role in digitising Africa’s informal retail backbone by turning fragmented supply chains into data-driven, finance-enabled ecosystems.
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