As Nigeria’s small and medium businesses continue to navigate the complexities of digital transformation, one local platform  called Haayaa is making a case for homegrown solutions for the SMEs and MSME sector.

Haayaa, developed by a trio of Nigerian founders, quietly signals a shift in how digital infrastructure for business is imagined, built, and deployed across local markets.

Haayaa is an all-in-one e-commerce platform offering easy-to-use customisable business tools that help individuals and SMEs scale their businesses.

In the last decade, Nigerian businesses particularly in the retail and trade sectors have leaned heavily on social media, instant messaging, and personal trust to sell, track, and manage customer relationships. But as demand grows, these methods are not sustainable.

According to Kene Aniekwena, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Haayaa, “What we found wasn’t just a technology gap, it was a systems gap. Businesses weren’t failing because they didn’t know how to sell. They were struggling to stay organised. They were spending more time managing operations than growing.”

Haayaa is positioned  to solve that with a business-first approach.

This vision came to life at the recent Haayaa 2.0 Launch Event in Abuja, where entrepreneurs and creators gathered to experience the next evolution of the platform.

It was a glimpse into the future of digital business management for Nigerian SMEs, unveiling Haayaa’s redesigned interface, improved functionality, and expanded feature set. From interactive product demos to engaging conversations about digital infrastructure, the launch captured Haayaa’s commitment to empowering business owners with accessible tools that reflect the realities of local commerce. Attendees experienced first-hand the platform’s new additions, including the No-Code Website Builder, Integrated Logistics, Local Payment Support, POS (Point of Sales ) and Staff Access Accounts, which redefine accountability and trust in small business operations.

At its core, Haayaa 2.0 is an attempt at what many startups in the region are still grappling with, contextual innovation. Rather than recreate Western e-commerce models, Haayaa leans into the way Nigerian businesses actually operate: from managing sales across multiple channels to dealing with unreliable infrastructure. One of the most pressing but rarely addressed problems in local commerce is theft and lack of transparency among staff. Many business owners operate on trust, often blind trust, handing over physical stores or social media DMs to employees with little visibility into actual transactions. Haayaa 2.0 introduces Staff Access Accounts, a feature that allows business owners to assign sales roles to staff while monitoring every transaction in real-time. Owners can see who sold what, when it was sold, and through which channel. It’s real-time accountability that empowers business owners to delegate with confidence.

What Haayaa is doing goes beyond building a platform, it is redefining what digital infrastructure means for Nigerian markets. The platform is poised to revolutionize business infrastructure by rooting its innovation in the lived realities of Nigerian businesses.

It is evolving into the backbone of informal and semi-formal commerce across the country with features that support local payments, no-code website setup, integrated logistics, and community-based selling.

Haayaa’s ethos is one of quiet transformation. It doesn’t seek to “disrupt” as much as it seeks to enable. It doesn’t force businesses to abandon how they work, it enhances those ways with structure, insight, and efficiency.