1. The taxman

This one surprised us and is not easy to come back from :)

Let’s dive in.

Several businesses are worried that if they digitize their trade, the taxman will have visibility and they will pay more taxes.

All we can say is; Dear business, Paying your taxes is good and in the long run, you’ll be more competitive.

2. Those transaction fees are too high, will stick with cash.

This is probably the most common excuse we hear whilst pitching businesses to adopt digital payments.

For many businesses, it is easy to understand a direct cost. A percent of every sale hits your bottom line directly. What many businesses are bad at calculating are the indirect costs.

When you transact cash, you need to balance it with your accounts probably at end of the day.

You need to keep it safe, many times you have shortages that are impossible to account for.

You need to take it to the bank, probably in your socks, LOOL.

All this takes time and money. According to IHL Group, the real cost of cash ranges from 4.7% to over 15% for some retail segments.

3. My customers use cash.

Good point!

A few years ago, we used typewriters, we went to internet cafes to read email and we went to movie libraries to borrow movies.

Businesses that thrive into the future understand that the only constant in business is changing. 

If your business is going to be relevant tomorrow, there is no better time to start learning how to operate in the future, today.

PS. We are not saying throw out cash altogether. But it will do your business a whole lot of good if you put it onto the path of tomorrow which is digital + cashless payments.

4. This is Africa :)

People usually use this statement to say that doing business in Africa is fundamentally different from other parts of the world, so please don’t tell me about those sophisticated, western business models like e-commerce or digital payments.

We agree Africa is a different beast when it comes to doing business. It is informal, incomes are low, people have low literacy and we have endemic corruption. 

For us, that is the big reason to adopt technology in business.

If you want to build a scalable and resilient African business, the efficiency and cost savings of technology are how to do it.

The big question for you

What other reasons have you heard why businesses will not adopt digital payment technologies in their business?