More than 614 businesses have gone digital

Mr Ricky Thomson Rappa, the SafeBoda managing director

What you need to know:

  • About 50 businesses have been digitised through the Xente app, which also has 400 more in the pipeline.

East Technology applications have registered an increase in number of businesses going digital.
The emergence of Covid-19, which has restricted movement of people since March, has increased appetite and emphasized the need for businesses to move online.
Data gathered from different technology applications that digitize businesses indicates that more than 614 businesses have moved online.
SafeBoda, a predominantly ride application, which included a delivery and food feature, has the lion’s share of the digitised businesses.

“103 local businesses and more than 300 restaurants have gone digital on SafeBoda,” Mr Ricky Thomson Rappa, the SafeBoda managing director, told Daily Monitor.
About 50 businesses have been digitised through the Xente app, which also has 400 more in the pipeline.
Mr Fred Ferguson, the EasyPay wallet founder, which links small and medium enterprises to e-commerce, said a total of 161 businesses across different sectors are registered on the application.

“Total businesses are 161, including 30 from food (grocery) and restaurant, online shopping (84), medicare (19), housing (5), transport (3) and 20 categorised under others,” he said.
All the applications registered increased interest from consumer-goods based businesses to go digital.

Important to note, is that the number is not reflective of unique businesses since it is possible for the same business to be registered on multiple platforms.
While Jumia could not reveal figures, it said the market place has received more inquiries about selling on the platform.
“We see interest from all businesses but there are definitely more people selling sanitisers and face masks, especially during this period,” Ms Samantha Abaho, the Jumia public relations manager, said.

Payment Concerns
However, for many businesses, the transition has not been easy with trust issues coming out as a major challenge. “Their concern is usually about how quickly they get paid,” Ms Lyn Tukei, the Xente chief marketing and communications officer, said. Jumia, SafeBoda and Easy Pay also said businesses are interested in terms of payment with emphasis on quick payments.