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Waiting for Your Remittances? Some African Countries Take Ages to Pay Suppliers

Kenya clocks in as one of the slowest countries on average for suppliers given the time it takes to get money paid for goods delivered. According to the Duplo report: Exploring the State of B2B Payments in Africa over 80% of Kenyan companies are taking more than a day to process invoices and the waiting can take nearly a year for some firms before the money is received. This highlights the struggles suppliers are facing to get their dues after delivery of goods. SA has a better showing after the report found 39.9% of firms took a day or less to process invoices compared with Nigeria’s 39.7% and Ghana’s 38.4%. Only 19.7% of Kenyan companies’ process invoices within 24 hours, with 57% taking up to a week to pay. (Duplo is a payments platform for African businesses).

Ironically, Kenya is leading in payment automation, with 83.4% of businesses indicating that their payment system is either fully automated or semi-automated, compared to Nigeria (79.9), SA (71.7%), and Ghana (67.2%). The World Bank recently reported that Africa’s share of the global B2B payment opportunity is US$1.5tn.

 

 

Alastair Tempest

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