Not only is Africa the world’s second largest and second most densely populated continent, as it boasts 54 countries with eight territories, but it is also home to a wide diversity of ethnicities, cultures, and languages. Today, technology and innovation are transforming Africa’s economic potential, forging new target markets and opportunities for savvy businesses.
How are organisations riding the wave?
PaySpace has grown its footprint and disrupted the African market over the years. To set the scene, we need to go back to 2001. One of the most interesting advents of that year was the Nokia 250 that boasted the world’s first monochromatic display in a phone. This meant that boring black and white displays were updated to a similar blue as Nokia’s logo. At the same time the industry started developing the software that has been added today.
Moving forward to 2007, this was the year South Africa won the Rugby World Cup for a second time, and the same year the series ‘Keeping Up with The Kardashians’ began. The series became one of the longest running television series in history, with the final season premiering in March 2021.
Another ground-breaking technological event of 2007 happened on the 9th of January, when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone for the very first time. Why is this date important? It was the same year PaySpace launched its integrated Payroll and Human Resources platform, a disruption that was to be the first of many.
This is how we are disrupting the African market
There are three ways PaySpace is disrupting the African market. First, scaling before it’s too late, second, product market fit, and finally, mobile-first. PaySpace researched the market extensively to ensure we could become a global software provider.
Scalability was built into our architecture because traditionally, legacy payroll software had to be installed locally and maintained and updated frequently. Our cloud platform is a single-instance, multi-tenant architecture, enabling our customers to have the latest and greatest version of the software, with no impact to them. It offers scalability, improved performance, and a world-class service with no more upgrades – we refer to this as future-proofing your organisation.
With regards to product market fit: Africa has 54 countries, each with its own legislation, and interpretation, which is a mammoth task to keep up with. With PaySpace, more than 40 of these African countries have automated legislative updates to keep abreast of country-specific legislation, as well as language compliance, and including exchange rate conversions and multi-currency payment capabilities. This is considered the ’golden key’ of compliance by many of the world’s leading HR professionals.
Finally, in the matter of a mobile-first strategy: Africa’s population is the fastest growing in the world and is expected to increase by roughly 50% in the next 18 years, growing from 1.3 billion people today to over 1.8 billion by 2035. In fact, Africa will account for nearly all of the global population growth over the next two decades. This pace of growth and change means that Africa is already beginning to leapfrog other countries, according to the International Telecommunications Union.
The adoption of mobile phones in Africa is three and a half times that of the rest of the world. And as a cloud-only provider, everything we do is designed to enable anywhere, anytime access – including on mobile devices. We provide simple, more intuitive, and visual feedback for easier use and learning.
PaySpace: built in Africa, for Africans
PaySpace’s technology is world-class compared to what is available on the market. Our biggest differentiator is that we offer African organisations a cost-effective solution that they know has been built in Africa, for Africans, and at the same time is built by a global provider.
Africa is a diverse continent. PaySpace was born and bred in Africa, and its pricing model is far more cost-effective than other international companies. Our local presence gives us more insight into what Africa is experiencing, as opposed to a company based in New York or Germany. We truly understand Africa’s unique challenges.