Cellulant has recently extended product offerings on Mula payment to include Mula Shops – an online shopping experience for the rising number of micro-merchants on social networking sites.

This allows brands that leverage social media as platforms for e-commerce to give their customers a world-class one-stop-shop service all within Facebook and Instagram.

Cellulant’s chief product officer Faizal Mirza says, "No matter how you look at the future of innovation in Africa, the future is in providing a seamless experience in a space that is currently fragmented. This partnership with Facebook allows us to do so for a segment that is often neglected when considering the economies of scale in Africa."

"This is the beginning of our journey to offering a seamless, smart and connected digital payment experience to our customers across Africa. Fundamentally, we will be able to connect one of Africa’s growing base of micro-merchants’ gig economy, or 'hustle-preneurs', to their ever mobile and digital customers," adds Mirza.

Huddah Cosmetics, a beauty company, was founded by Kenyan model and entrepreneur Alhuda Njoroge, better known as Huddah Monroe. Launched in 2016, Huddah Cosmetics aims to provide a solution to long-lasting day-to-day makeup needs for African women.

"I started my company out of pure passion and vision to offer every woman a product that celebrates the diversity of African beauty. Huddah Cosmetics is for every woman who is strong-willed, outspoken and stands for what they believe – regardless of what the society thinks," says Monroe.

"I am excited to be the first 'hustle-preneur' to work with Cellulant and Facebook as they launch Mula shops using AR on Facebook Messenger. This is an opportunity for my company to give a unique online shopping experience of our beauty products to our customers in a way that has never happened before," Monroe adds.

Proud Dzambukira, the Facebook product partnership lead, Middle East and Africa, says, "We’re thrilled to be partnering with Cellulant and Huddah Cosmetics in a first for the continent, AR in Messenger – a powerful and innovative tool to aid Huddah's customers to discover, try and buy her range of cosmetics through Facebook and Instagram."

"With nearly one in two SMBs on Facebook building their business on Facebook, our platform can play a powerful role in enabling social commerce. We want to help drive innovation by supporting Africa’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, and this is just one of the many ways," Dzambukira adds.

This partnership with Huddah Cosmetics is in line with one of Cellulant’s objective to empower youth and transform their online hustle into a viable and scalable business by creating platforms that help grow their bottom-line.

As a payment platform, the company is investing in advancing Africa’s economic footprint by building a payments infrastructure that gives the customer the choice of how they manage and use their money.

Ultimately, the payments infrastructure will aim to power the success of millions of businesses by providing a simple and easy way to receive money from their customers.

Kenya is the first country to launch this new online experience, with Nigeria, Tanzania and Rwanda to follow.

For more information, visit www.cellulant.com or www.huddahstore.com. You can also follow Huddah Cosmetics on Facebook.