A report from a business payment platform for African businesses known as Duplo, has stated that Nigeria now trails behind South Africa and Kenya in the development of key B2B payment processes across Africa.
These B2B processors include the adoption of electronic bank transfers, the speed with which invoices are processed, and payment automation.
South Africa leads the way in electronic bank transfers, with 49.1% of respondents choosing it as their preferred method of paying vendors, followed by Nigeria (48.5%), Ghana (34%), and Kenya (31.9%), according to the Exploring the State of B2B Payments in Africa report, which includes the opinions of more than 1,200 professionals from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Ghana who were polled.
With 83.4% of Kenyans reporting that their payment system is either semi-automated or fully automated, the country tops the world in payment automation, followed by Nigeria (79.9%), South Africa (71.69%), and Ghana (67.23%).
South Africa just outperformed Nigeria in terms of how quickly invoices are processed, with 39.93% of respondents saying this normally happens in a day or less as opposed to Nigeria’s 39.74%.
According to the survey, security was rated as the aspect that respondents valued the most when choosing B2B payment software, with 35.89% choosing it as their top choice.
Kenya (39.9%), Ghana (36%), South Africa (35.6%), and Nigeria (32.2%) all ranked security as the most important characteristic, highlighting the value businesses place on protecting their financial data.
Multiple payment alternatives (13.5%), functionality and user-friendliness (17.6%), and speed (12.9%) are followed, indicating a preference for flexible payment methods and speedy transactions.
There is a focus on functionality and immediacy demands, as evidenced by the lower priority given to pricing (11.5%) and scalability (8.2%).
The CEO and co-founder of Duplo, Yele Oyekola, commented on the news, stating that despite several obstacles, Africa’s B2B payments market is poised for rapid development and innovation, heralding a new era of opportunities and expansion for the continent’s business environment.
“The possibility to automate accounts payable and receivable and reform other elements of the B2B payment process has significant potential to decrease payment delays, improve cash flow, and spur business growth throughout the continent.
“The rising use of digital solutions also signals a change in the dynamics of the workplace and puts financial professionals in a better position to benefit their firms.”
He noted that they are looking forward to having a significant impact on how these potentials are realized and how technological solutions are provided to promote corporate growth in Africa.
The B2B payments market in Africa presents a huge but mostly unexploited opportunity with B2B payments’ complexity and higher transaction volumes being partially to blame for this.
Recently, digital payment solutions have eased many of these challenges but there remains several issues to be addressed in the journey of easing the flow of money between businesses in Africa.
