Bridging Literacy Gaps in A frican Informal Business Management with Low-Resource Conversational Agents (2025)

Abstract: Position paper: In many African countries, the informal business sector represents the backbone of the economy, providing essential livelihoods and opportunities where formal employment is limited. Despite, however, the growing adoption of digital tools, entrepreneurs in this sector often face significant challenges due to lack of literacy and language barriers. These barriers not only limit accessibility but also increase the risk of fraud and financial insecurity. This position paper explores the potential of conversational agents (CAs) adapted to low-resource languages (LRLs), focusing specifically on Mooré, a language widely spoken in Burkina Faso. By enabling natural language interactions in local languages, AI-driven conversational agents offer a promising solution to enable informal traders to manage their financial transactions independently, thus promoting greater autonomy and security in business, while providing a step towards formalization of their business. Our study examines the main challenges in developing AI for African languages, including data scarcity and linguistic diversity, and reviews viable strategies for addressing them, such as cross-lingual transfer learning and data augmentation techniques.

## introduction commerce, particularly in the informal sector, plays an essential role in the economy of most african countries. a significant portion of the population is involved in informal trading activities, which include small-scale retail, street vending, and local artisan markets @xcite . in urban areas, vibrant markets abound, where vendors offer a wide array of goods, from fresh produce to handmade crafts, providing a livelihood for many families. the informal sector is especially vital for job creation in contexts where formal employment opportunities remain scarce @xcite . recently, technological advance-ments have significantly transformed informal commerce. problem statement. consider, for example, an entrepreneur in the bustling retail sector who operates a successful shop specializing in local crafts and essential goods. leveraging digital tools, they use mobile payment foot_0 platforms to streamline operations and improve customer convenience, enabling fast and accessible transactions via smartphone technology. however, despite the operational advantages of these digital platforms, the businessman may face challenges in exploiting the technology due to limited literacy skills and the fact that most of the existing solutions are not inclusive to enable easy use in case of linguistic barriers. this can potentially lead them to seek assistance from other people. as a result, they often may rely on others for instance to check their balance or make payments on their behalf, a practice which, while necessary, presents potential security risks. this dependence on outside help unintentionally increases their vulnerability to fraud, as sharing sensitive information with third parties can compromise their financial security @xcite . the potential of technology to empower is then undermined when these tools remain inaccessible to a large portion of the population. with recent advances, artificial intelligence (ai) has the potential to act as a powerful lever, enabling accessible technology use through conversational agents that communicate in users' native languages, making digital tools universally approachable. ## addressing challenges in low resource language conversational agents researchers have investigated various solutions for overcoming linguistic and resource limitations in developing conversational agents for low-resource languages (lrls). this section presents some of these approaches. ## conclusion this position paper underscores the urgent need for conversational agents (cas) tailored to lowresource languages (lrls) in africa to improve accessibility and security in digital tools for informal commerce. by introducing cas in languages like mooré, entrepreneurs could gain independence in managing financial transactions, reducing reliance on third parties and lowering fraud risks. the paper proposes strategies for addressing challenges such as data scarcity and linguistic complexity, including cross-linguistic transfer learning and data augmentation tailored to low-resource settings. these ideas aim to bridge the digital divide, empowering african language speakers with greater access to technology and financial autonomy. building on the ideas presented in this position paper, future work will focus on investigating the concrete implementation of these strategies, with an emphasis on data collection and model refinement for african languages to foster digital equity in africa's informal economy.