A new report from Duplo, a business payment platform for African businesses of all sizes, has revealed that Ghana is among the top five countries in Africa when it comes payment automation and use of electronic bank transfers in the B2B space.
According to the Exploring the State of B2B Payments in Africa report, which includes the surveyed opinions of more than 1,200 professionals from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana, South Africa leads the way in electronic bank transfers, with 49.1 percent choosing it as their preferred way to pay vendors, followed by Nigeria (48.5 percent), Ghana (34 percent) and Kenya (31.9 percent).
But when it comes to payment automation, Kenya leads the way with 83.4 percent of Kenyans indicating that their payment system was either semi-automated or fully automated, compared to Nigeria (79.9 percent), South Africa (71.69 percent) and Ghana (67.23 percent).
When it comes to the speed of processing invoices, South Africa has a slender lead, with 39.93 percent, which shows that it typically takes a day or less to process invoices compared with Nigeria’s 39.74 percent.
GhIPSS
It is, however, important to noted the Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPSS), has created a number of platforms that allow B2B large payments between bank accounts to be settled in real time, within 15 minutes, or 4 hours, or maximum 24 hours. There is the GIP (GhIPSS Instant Pay), Proxy Pay, ACH Direct Credit and ACH Direct Debit among others.
Indeed, in the most recent State of Instant and Inclusive Payments in Africa Report by AfricaNenda, Ghana stood out as the only country which has reached maturity stage with regards to instant payment in Africa, thanks the the innovations at GhIPSS.
Per the Duplo report, Africa’s B2B payment sector represents a significant, yet largely untapped opportunity. This is partly due to the complexity and larger transaction volumes associated with B2B payments.
According to the World Bank, 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 impacts their cash flow and slows their growth.
In recent years, digital payments solutions have eased many of these challenges but there remains a number of issues to be addressed in the journey of easing the flow of money between businesses in Africa.
Security
For example, security ranked as the most critical feature across the board for respondents when choosing B2B payment software, with 35.89 percent selecting it as the feature they valued the most.
Across individual countries, security was also the top feature – Kenya (39.9 percent), Ghana (36 percent), South Africa (35.6 percent) and Nigeria (32.2 percent) – emphasising the importance companies attach to safeguarding their financial data.
Functionality, ease of use, speed, others
Functionality and ease of use (17.6 percent), multiple payment options (13.5 percent) and speed (12.9 percent) follow, showing a preference for payment flexibility and quick transactions. Pricing (11.5 percent) and scalability (8.2 percent) are less prioritised, suggesting a focus on functionality and immediate needs.
CEO and co-founder of Duplo, Yele Oyekola, said “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. The opportunity to automate accounts payable and receivable and transform other aspects of the B2B payments process offers great potential to reduce payment delays, enhance cash flow and drive growth for businesses across the continent. The increased adoption of digital solutions also implies a shift in workplace dynamics and positions finance professionals to add more value to their organisations. We are looking forward to playing a major role in the realisation of these opportunities and the delivery of technology solutions to support growth for businesses in Africa.”
Exploring the State of B2B Payments in Africa report is available to download for free on Duplo’s website.
About Duplo
Duplo is a B2B payments platform that makes it easier for African businesses to pay each other by providing digital tools that are more efficient, cost-effective and secure. Duplo’s industry-agnostic B2B payments product completely automates the back-office processes of generating and processing invoices, receiving, and approving bills, collecting and disbursing funds, and completing account reconciliation.
With Duplo, businesses of all sizes can streamline their back-office operations and seamlessly pay suppliers and get paid much faster from their business customers.
For more information, please visit www.tryduplo.com
