It’s Time To Be Bullish About Africa: An Human Resource & Payroll Technology Perspective

“Extremely bullish on Africa – can’t wait to see the continent evolve over the next decade. So much talent.”

These sentiments are from a social media message by Alex Bouaziz, co-founder and CEO of Deel, the most successful technology startup in history that reached a US$12 billion value in just 5 years. Reaching more than 16,000 followers on Twitter, his post sparked a flurry of similar comments, expressing how they saw opportunity emerge across the continent.

The post also carries significant relevance because 2024 was a landmark year for Deel’s relationship with Africa. Specifically, Deel acquired PaySpace, the African-developed payroll platform that is challenging traditional payroll and HR software to bring much faster, smarter, and more affordable services to multiple regions.

Digital is part of Africa’s story

Cloud-native payroll and HR software is driving a US$16 billion market growing 12% annually. Organisations worldwide are replacing legacy systems with integrated cloud solutions, reaping major competitive and cost advantages by leveraging data, integration, and agile software.

This transformation is especially impactful in Africa, where developing nations benefit from the speed and affordability of cloud-native platforms across their diverse regions. African companies are leapfrogging ahead to get the most from these new technologies. They are adopting cloud solutions faster to help staff focus their energy smartly and not on repetitive tasks and data collection that could be automated.

Serving over 16,000 customers in 46 countries

The continent has enormous potential to become a massive internal market. According to the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, inter-African trade reached over US$192 billion during 2023.

Yet, with that figure only representing 15% of total African trade, there is still considerable room for growth. Furthermore, Africa’s companies are increasingly exporting business services to the rest of the world.

PaySpace is a perfect example of this export opportunity. It serves over 16,000 customers with its cloud-native, multi-tenant payroll and HR software platform, including leading ESS features such as Pacey, the WhatsApp chatbot that helps employees directly access services such as payslips and leave applications through the popular chat client.

During 2024, the PaySpace platform helped companies pay 8.5 million employees in 46 countries, now including Brazil and the UK, and several other milestones:

• 233,988,871: Number of payslip calculations on the PaySpace platform.
• 1.01: The number of seconds PaySpace by Deel took to calculate a payslip on average.
• 64,997: Hours saved by customers using the PaySpace platform during 2024.
• 170,000: Visits to the PaySpace Knowledge hub during 2024.

“Organisations of all sizes are embracing digitisation and seeing remarkable results,” says Sandra Crous, Managing Director of PaySpace. “PaySpace started twenty-four years ago because the founders saw the same future for the payroll and HR space, and it’s been amazing to experience how our customers keep gaining when they leverage cloud-native software.”

Bullish about Africa

The notion of an African Renaissance is not new, and it has encountered challenges. Yet, digitisation is undeniably enabling African organisations in transforming their operations. The flexibility of modern software helps them accomplish more and compete internationally, offering great benefits to customers globally.

Alex Bouaziz’s comment shows that the world is waking up to Africa’s potential. Deel’s acquisition of PaySpace shows that African technologies not only compete successfully against international brands, but can lead the way forward. It’s time to be bullish about Africa!