The International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank has revealed that firms in Africa are slow to digitalise beyond mobile and digital payments.

Again, almost two-thirds of firms that adopted advanced digital payment systems in the region have not yet adopted a second advanced digital technology to perform business functions.

On the topic “Digital Opportunities in African Business, it said widespread adoption of digital payments does not translate into its intensive use as the most frequent payment method, therefore, only 7.0% of firms that have adopted digital payment methods report using them intensively.

It added that mobile phones and digital payments are important entry points to digitalisation, but they do not necessarily lead to digitalisation of other business functions performed by firms.

“As many as 86% of firms use mobile phones for business operations, and 61% have adopted advanced digital technologies for payment. These are by far the most common uses of digital technology by African firms. However, these firms are slow to digitalise beyond mobile and digital payments. Almost two-thirds of firms that adopted advanced digital payment systems in the region have not yet adopted a second advanced digital technology to perform business functions”, it pointed out.

57% of firms in Ghana, Kenya, adopt computers, internet

Meanwhile, 57% of firms in Ghana, Kenya and Senegal have adopted computers and internet compared to 44% of such firms in low-income countries including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Malawi.

These firms had five or more workers.

The IFC said large and medium-size firms tend to make fuller use of digitalisation and are more prevalent, relative to the working-age population, in the first group of countries.

As such, firms in low-income countries are less likely to have access to digital enablers and to productively use digital technologies, but cross-country differences in business digitalisation are driven mostly by the composition of firms, with a high prevalence of micro- and informal businesses in low-income countries.

It added that cross-country differences also mask regional variations. For example, lower-income subnational regions in middle-income countries still face sizable gaps in the uptake of digital enablers. Gaps in intensive use are especially relevant for middle income countries in regions with better digital infrastructure.