How digital payment is boosting women-owned businesses in Nigeria

Eight out of ten women-owned businesses in Nigeria that have moved to digital payment have seen a positive impact in accelerating growth, according to findings from new research by Visa.

Titled “Understanding Women-Owned SMEs”, the survey by the California-based financial services company showed that Nigerian and South Africa led the gainers’ chart as 81 percent of women-owned businesses reported business growth acceleration amid the adoption of digital payments.

The impact was 77 percent in Kenya, East Africa’s largest economy. “According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs in the world, with 26% starting and managing a business on the continent in the last year.

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We aim to encourage and enable even more participation of women in driving the economy, through our She’s Next initiative,” Aida Diarra, Senior Vice President & Head of Sub-Saharan Africa at Visa, said.

The survey which explored the role of technologies including digital payments in enabling the business success of female entrepreneurs in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria also revealed that the lack of technological infrastructure, economic fluctuations and a regulatory environment were the top business challenges for women entrepreneurs in the region.

“Our research shows that female-led businesses face unique challenges throughout their entrepreneurial journey, and we are committed to helping these business owners across Africa to identify growth opportunities,” Diarra said.

While the impact of introducing digital payments for businesses is positive, the study showed that there is room for improvement in adoption as the average 83 percent of respondents that did adopt digital payments in Sub- Saharan African region experienced an improvement in revenue.