Startups in Nigeria, others see growth as investment rise to $ 2.1b
• Global economic slowdown impacting SSA development
INVESTMENTS into digital transformation is paving the way for growth across markets in the Central Europe, Middle East and Africa ( CEMEA) region, a trend, which has been reflected in the increasing share of consumers and retail merchants making transactions online.
According to Visa Inc, which revealed this, prospects for new businesses are encouraging, especially in sub- Saharan Africa ( SSA), while start- ups across CEMEA are seeing triple- digit growth rates for investment, where the figures for SSA are particularly strong, with investment up by 285 per cent to $ 2,120 million and deals up 26 per cent to 392 in number in the last year.
Senior Vice President and Group Country Manager, SSA Visa, Aida Diarra, in the article, titled: “Destination Digital: A Spotlight on Sub- Saharan Africa’s Prospects,” noted that three- quarters of small businesses indicated that accepting digital payments was essential to their growth, with 90 per cent reporting that pivoting to ecommerce, which relies on digital acceptance, had helped them survive the pandemic.
Diarra said: “If there is going to be a digital payment evolution, it cannot be limited to large businesses. In solving this segment, we need to address the complexities, drive lower cost, and innovate to create more frictionless ways for SMES to begin accepting payments.”
With this goal in mind, he said Visa has launched Tap to Phone, mobile POS ( point of sale) technology – where sellers download an app to enable their smartphones to accept payments – in several markets in the region. He said the process has underlined the importance of a robust Internet infrastructure, with connectivity ( and the related costs) and integration with other business management systems both key to success in this area.
On economic challenges, Visa observed that the global economic outlook turned gloomier in recent months amid rising energy and food prices, and aggressively tighter monetary policy in advanced economies, with interest rate hikes in America E. U. and Britain.