SaaS in SSA: Software collaboration supporting African trade

It’s often easier to ship from Lagos to London than it is from Lagos to Nairobi: a fact which illustrates the nascent stages of intercontinental transport in the continent, but also which illustrates a profound opportunity for trade finance. 

Beyond distance, currency instability creates additional friction. When a Nigerian company sells to a Kenyan buyer, the transaction typically requires converting from Naira to US dollars, conducting the trade, then converting back to Kenyan shillings. Each conversion introduces risk and cost. For businesses operating when the Naira traded at 900 to the dollar but now facing rates of around 1,500, volatility makes planning nearly impossible.

Adding to these challenges, each African central bank operates with different regulatory requirements for technology companies and digital transactions. This fragmentation demands heavy documentation and creates varied approval processes, particularly for digital trade finance solutions.

Broadly speaking, tariffs – largely imposed by the US – have had a muted effect across the continent, with the notable exception of markets such as Lesotho (where the textile industry has been severely impacted by the US tariff hikes). There has grown, as a result, an urgent need for African nations to strengthen their participation in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as a safeguard against potential future disruptions. Intra-African trade remains low, with formal levels at approximately 12-18%, which highlights the continued reliance on international trading corridors: a dependency that poses a persistent risk to the continent’s economic resilience.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Conventional wisdom suggests that countries lacking consistent electricity access aren’t ready for digital transformation. Africa is proving otherwise, leapfrogging a generation of technology.

The catalyst has been ubiquitous mobile phone adoption. When everyone has a mobile device, you don’t need much more than internet connectivity to access a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution running on cloud infrastructure. In the trade hubs and cities where commerce happens, that connectivity exists. 

While regulatory fragmentation creates challenges, it also reveals interesting patterns. The most prominent banks across Africa are pushing digital transformation faster than regulators can keep pace. They’re implementing solutions first, with regulatory frameworks adapting afterwards. In countries that haven’t yet approved e-documentation – Nigeria being a prime example – substantial appetite exists because of enormous trade volumes and values.

The UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR), adopted internationally in 2017, provides a framework for recognising electronic trade documents. While only Mauritius has fully adopted MLETR in Africa, organisations like Digital Trade Africa are building momentum across the continent – progress is being made towards harmonisation.

The AfCFTA, which commenced trading in January 2021, represents another significant step. Connecting 1.3 billion people across 55 nations with a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion, the AfCFTA aims to reduce trade barriers and boost intra-African commerce. A landmark development came in January 2022 with the Pan-African Payments and Settlement System (PAPSS), allowing companies to transact in local currencies and eliminating dollar intermediation.

Building trust through digital documentation

Consider Côte d’Ivoire, which supplies approximately 45% of global cocoa. Local banks are encouraging cocoa suppliers to consolidate shipments for more efficient financing. The challenge is trust: when multiple suppliers combine goods, disputes arise about the actual quantities contributed. Banks prefer financing larger consolidated transactions, but historically, this required cumbersome manual verification.

Digital platforms solve this by enabling suppliers to provide their own digital documentation, streamlining processes and reducing disputes. This addresses a critical barrier: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often cannot access trade finance because they lack collateral or credit history. By making it easy for SMEs to use digital platforms, they can build trustworthy documentation that reduces rejection rates when requesting financing.

External investment, particularly from China through the Belt and Road Initiative, shapes Africa’s trade dynamics significantly. These investments create a pull toward international trade rather than fostering intra-continental commerce. When foreign investors deploy substantial capital, they naturally expect returns through trade relationships between Africa and the investing nation; infrastructure development serves to benefit recipient countries in Africa, too.

Diverse markets, scalable solutions

What makes SaaS solutions particularly relevant for Africa is their scalability across vastly different market tiers. The continent’s banks range from sophisticated tier-one institutions with operations across dozens of countries to small tier-four banks serving local markets. Africa may not dominate global economic rankings, but its banks are focused on trade and serious about growing that business.

This focus has intensified as large American banks have pulled back from Africa as part of broader de-risking exercises. Their withdrawal creates opportunities for local and regional banks, provided they have access to appropriate technology. Smaller banks cannot afford traditional enterprise software procurement with major global vendors. They need solutions implemented quickly, at reasonable cost, and scaled to specific requirements.

Modern SaaS platforms meet this need by offering the same core technology to both tier-one banks planning global rollouts and tier-four banks operating in a single country. This scalability, combined with regional expertise and true partnership, makes SaaS providers valuable allies for African banks navigating digital transformation.

South Africa leads in digital trade finance adoption, with major banks implementing advanced solutions. These institutions engage in substantial daily transaction volumes with banks across the continent.

Beyond South Africa, significant opportunities are emerging. West Africa has experienced significant growth. In Nigeria, this expansion has been driven by foreign exchange (FX) reforms, AfCFTA, and initiatives from organisations such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

Meanwhile, capital-intensive renewable energy projects are increasingly evident in Kenya, which is gaining strong momentum despite central bank documentation requirements; Egypt is generating substantial interest with growing momentum behind digital initiatives; Ghana, Togo, and commodity-focused economies, including Zambia (copper) and Angola (oil), are all initiating conversations about digital transformation.

Last year, digital technology was responsible for approximately 13% of trade finance transactions out of Africa. While this represents less than 1% of global trade, it marks significant progress from 2023 levels. Recent data from Afreximbank confirms this trajectory: Africa’s total merchandise trade surged 13.9% in 2024 to reach $1.5 trillion, with intra-African trade growing 12.4% to $220.3 billion.

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Successful digital transformation requires collaboration between banks and corporates on a single platform. Traditional trade finance operates through bilateral relationships with heavy documentation requirements and limited visibility. Modern SaaS platforms enable collaborative environments where banks and corporate clients work together on the same digital infrastructure.

Banks gain real-time visibility into corporate trade activities, improving risk assessment and reducing processing times, while corporates access financing more easily by providing standardised digital documentation that banks trust. Both parties benefit from reduced manual processing, fewer errors, and faster transaction completion.

For smaller corporates and SMEs, access to these collaborative platforms levels the playing field. They can present trade documentation in formats banks recognise and trust, building credit histories that open access to future financing. The Surecomp/ RMB collaboration enables RMB to broaden their product reach across franchise markets, which not only mitigates operational risk factors but, equally importantly, provides clients with a platform to communicate trade requests directly with the bank. Extending this proposition to new clients could help capture additional segments in a more structured and coordinated manner.

The combination of mobile connectivity, cloud-based SaaS solutions, progressive bank leadership, and evolving regulatory frameworks creates genuine momentum for trade finance digitalisation across Africa. 

The continent that many dismissed as too far behind to embrace digital transformation is proving that necessity, combined with mobile-first infrastructure and scalable cloud technology, can drive innovation that bypasses traditional development paths.