How Technology Can Enhance Financial Transparency in East Africa
East African businesses have a new means of battling corruption – digital technologies that can enhance transparency and ensure compliance.
African nations have historically faced limited transparency and high levels of poor Corporate governance Issues. Thankfully, the nations that make up the East African region have over the last decade been instituting reforms to combat fraud and normalise transparency.
The importance of these efforts to promote accountability cannot be underestimated. It is a core factor in attracting investment and ensuring that capital is utilised fully and wisely. Without transparency in business practices and an honest, easily accessible risk portfolio, companies will attract only a fraction of funding compared to others who are more open about their finances.
Achieving transparency can be a tricky endeavour, but companies that harness the power of digital technologies such as mobility, cloud and data analytics, to improve their transparency will find they have an edge over their more opaque competitors. These businesses experience far fewer gaps in their supply chain thanks to data platforms that lead to increased levels of communication and openness within and between departments.
The right enterprise management software can be beneficial to the efficient running of any company, no matter how much of a lack of transparency they suffered from previously. Some of the improvements that companies can observe following implementation include better risk management, reduced overheads, greater decision-making flexibility, predictable supply, and more effective customer services.
SAP is committed to organisational transparency, both in its own practices as well as promoting it through its portfolio of visibility-enhancing solutions. Their portfolio of ERP financial management solutions are designed to integrate finance functions, leading to improved monetary results.
Data analytics, the cloud, and mobility are just some of the tools businesses can use in order to paint an accurate picture of the entirety of their operations. These technologies can automate processes, offer insights through the analysis of large amounts of data, and zero in on financial irregularities. Better still, the flexibility provided by a more open network infrastructure allows for management to take measures against irregularities in real time.
Companies who implement such solutions can proactively protect their value via enterprise risk and compliance software that allows them to monitor their performance data to ensure they are never on the wrong side of regulatory structures.
It is easy to see how East African companies, who often have to face general infrastructure and bureaucracy challenges, could propel themselves ahead of the pack using these solutions. Ensuring the transparency of their organisation through digital technologies should be at the top of any company’s priority list.
