Marrakech – When Gitex Africa 2025 prepared to complete his third edition in Marrakech, a respected body of experts to fix the critical topic “Digitization of the African MSMES ecosystem”.
The session examined how digital solutions can change the process for micro, small and medium-sized companies (MSMES) that make up the backbone of African companies with almost 90%.
Zainab Oumeryem, head of the regulatory monitoring and research unit at Bank al-Maghrib in Morocco, called for conventional wisdom about MSME obstacles. “The problem goes beyond digitization,” she said, pointing out structural problems with which small companies are faced.
In view of the research of the World Bank, she found that “only 4% of Moroccan companies, in contrast to the popular opinion, provide access to financing as the main problem”.
In the meantime, Oumeryem increased the administrative stress and the poor organizational structure as the main challenges for the integration of the digitization of MSMES.
It positioned the digital transformation as a solution rather than a goal and said: “For me, digitization is a tool that should help to deal with these challenges,” she said, explaining how “strengthening transparency” and better structured operations in internal structure.
Raliat Sunmonu, Vice President for the Middle East and Africa at Accion Nigeria, commented concerns about inclusiveness in the digital transformation process.
She warned that despite its advantages, digitization “due to the way we carry out digitization,” leaving many small companies “that leave many small companies.
Sunmonu also referred to the need for affordable, accessible solutions that enable small companies to effectively participate in the economy.
In the meantime, Elias Yazbeck, COO of Open Innovation and FinTech at the Axian Group, focused on the need to reach under -supplied companies.
He pointed out that many KKMES are not officially registered, which restricted their access to financial infrastructures that are available in more developed markets.
Yazbeck spoke about how her mobile articles of articles are used for 20 million active users and thousands of dealers across Africa.
He also said that informal channels remain dominant despite digital progress: “Facebook on social media has more transactions than formal transactions because they do not have the movements to approach this form.”
His insight signals how important it is to meet MSMES where you are already working instead of imposing external solutions.
Together, these experts painted a comprehensive picture of both the challenges and the opportunities in the digitization of the vital MSME ecosystem in Africa.
