Nigeria behind others in Africa’s B2B payment

According to a new report by Duplo, Nigeria is behind South Africa and Kenya in the development of key business-to-business (B2B) payment processes across Africa, as well as the adoption of electronic bank transfers, the speed of processing invoices and payment automation.

In the report titled, ‘Exploring the state of B2B Payments in Africa’, includes surveyed opinions of more than 1,200 professionals from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana.

It stated that South Africa leads the way in electronic bank transfers, with 49.1 per cent choosing it as their preferred way to pay vendors, followed by Nigeria (48.5 per cent), Ghana (34 per cent) and Kenya (31.9 per cent).

Also, Kenya leads in payment automation, with 83.4 per cent of Kenyans indicating that their payment system was either semi-automated or fully automated, compared to Nigeria (79.9 per cent), South Africa (71.69 percent) and Ghana (67.23 per cent).

On Africa’s B2B payment sector, the World Bank disclosed that the continent’s share of the global B2B payment opportunity stands at $1.5 trillion. However, despite this promising potential, many businesses grapple with considerable payment delays and other issues with their payment processes that negatively impact their cash flow and slow their growth.

Digital payment solutions in recent years, proved to eased many of these challenges but there remain several issues to be addressed in the journey of easing the flow of money between businesses in Africa.

Security ranked as top critical feature across the board for respondents when choosing B2B payment software, with 35.89 per cent selecting it as the feature they valued the most.

Commenting on the report, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Duplo, Yele Oyekola, noted that despite various challenges, the future of B2B payments in Africa is set for dynamic growth and innovation, signalling a new era of opportunities and expansion for the continent’s business ecosystem.