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From Digital Inclusion to Digital Resilience: A Systematic Review of AI-Mediated Informal Micro-Enterprise Systems in Africa

Sheik, Ismail, Dubihlela, Jobo, Chummun, Bibi Zaheenah·2026·Systems
DOI 10.3390/systems14080890
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Abstract

Artificial intelligence, digital payments and platform-based services are reshaping the operating conditions of Africa’s informal economy and micro-enterprise sector. While mobile money, digital marketplaces, app-mediated logistics and algorithmic scoring systems are commonly presented as instruments of financial inclusion and enterprise modernisation, their effects on informal traders remain uneven, conditional and under-governed. This systematic review synthesises recent peer-reviewed evidence on AI-mediated digitalisation pathways for informal and micro-enterprises in Africa, with particular attention to mobile money, platform payments, app-based logistics, digital credit, algorithmic management and platform governance. Following PRISMA-informed systematic review procedures, this review analyses 60 peer-reviewed, DOI-bearing articles published between April 2022 and June 2026 through a mechanism–outcome synthesis approach. The final corpus was selected through database searching, duplicate removal, title-and-abstract screening, full-text eligibility assessment, quality appraisal and mechanism–outcome coding. The findings show that digitalisation can expand market access, reduce cash-handling risks, create transaction histories, strengthen customer reach, improve operational continuity and support household resilience. However, the same digital infrastructures may also intensify livelihood vulnerability through opaque scoring, unexplained account freezes, fee shocks, exclusionary verification procedures, algorithmic ranking losses, data extraction and weak dispute-resolution mechanisms. The review therefore argues that informal enterprise digitalisation should not be understood only as a technology adoption issue, but as a socio-technical systems governance challenge. The article contributes a governance-and-risk framework linking local infrastructure, platform and payment design, AI (artificial intelligence) mediation, adoption conditions and livelihood outcomes. It further identifies minimum policy and design protections required for inclusive and resilient participation, including transparent fees, proportionate verification, human appeal channels, explainable restrictions, data-use consent, timely settlement and contingency mechanisms during digital outages or erroneous flags. The review concludes that sustainable digital inclusion for African informal micro-enterprises depends not merely on access to digital tools, but on the fairness, transparency, recoverability and accountability of the systems through which traders participate.

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Metadata

Authors
Sheik, I., Dubihlela, J., & Chummun, B. Z.
Venue
Systems
Publisher
MDPI AG
Published
2026-07-23
Volume
14
Issue
8
Pages
890
ISSN
2079-8954
DOI
10.3390/systems14080890
Cited by
0
References
2
Language
en
Licence
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (vor)

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