By Peter Hassan

In the vast landscape of the 21st-century global economy, the digital revolution has redrawn the contours of productivity, access, and competitiveness. From cloud accounting software in Canada to mobile banking apps in Kenya, from blockchain inventory systems in Germany to WhatsApp-based client booking in Nigeria, technology now shapes how the world does business.

But beneath this current of innovation lies a persistent rift; one that separates digitally connected enterprises from those barely clinging to analog lifelines. This is the chasm known as the digital divide, and few researchers have explored it with as much clarity and urgency as Azubike Collins Mgbame.

A Nigerian-born scholar and rising thought leader in the field of inclusive innovation, Mgbame is among the five co-authors of a 2023 landmark study titled Technology Acceptance and Digital Readiness in Underserved Small Business Sectors. Published in the Journal of Frontiers in Multidisciplinary Research, the paper pulls back the curtain on a systemic global problem: the exclusion of small businesses in rural and low-income communities from meaningful digital participation. The research does more than describe this divide; it quantifies it, explains its causes, and offers tailored interventions to close it.

Across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the underserved corridors of the West, small businesses are more than economic accessories. They are the core of resilience and employment. According to the International Labour Organization, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 90% of all businesses globally and over 50% of employment. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, SMEs contribute up to 60% of jobs and over 40% of GDP in many economies. Yet, digital policy, infrastructure planning, and innovation ecosystems rarely account for them as central actors.

“The small business owner selling farm produce or sewing clothes in a semi-urban neighborhood is not a peripheral player in the economy,” Mgbame says. “They are the backbone—and yet, digital tools are often designed as if they don’t exist.”

The study he co-authored is grounded in both data and lived experience. Using a mixed-methods approach, the researchers collected survey responses from 150 small business owners across diverse sectors—agriculture, retail, personal services, and informal trade—and complemented the data with qualitative interviews. While over 70% of participants reported being aware of common digital tools like mobile money platforms or inventory apps, less than 35% used them consistently in daily operations.

The reasons for the gap between awareness and action were complex but disturbingly consistent. Most participants cited at least one of four main challenges: low digital literacy, limited or expensive internet access, perceived technological complexity, and lack of ongoing technical support. Many respondents explained that while they had once experimented with a digital tool, the experience proved either too confusing, too costly, or too unsupported to sustain.

One small retail operator in Lagos described her frustration with a digital point-of-sale system that repeatedly crashed during network outages. A vegetable farmer in Kaduna shared how he was introduced to a crop management app through a pilot NGO project, only for the initiative to vanish after three months—leaving him without help or updates. Another respondent, a seamstress in Enugu, tried using Instagram to showcase her work but could not afford a smartphone that supported the latest app version.

“These aren’t failures of adoption,” Mgbame emphasizes. “They are failures of inclusion. We assume that exposure is enough, but exposure without support, affordability, and usability creates abandonment, not adoption.”

The study’s intellectual architecture rests on two widely respected models: the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Digital Readiness Framework. TAM, first proposed by Fred Davis in the 1980s, argues that perceived usefulness and ease of use are the two strongest predictors of whether individuals will adopt new technology. Mgbame and his colleagues used this model to assess how small business owners evaluated tools like accounting software, digital marketing apps, and customer tracking platforms.

But the team expanded beyond psychology and perception. The Digital Readiness Framework allowed them to examine broader structural factors—availability of infrastructure, leadership attitude, prior exposure to innovation, affordability, and technical training. By combining these models, the researchers produced a layered analysis that explored both the mindsets of users and the systemic conditions surrounding them.

“Readiness is not just about mindset,” Mgbame explains. “It’s about access. It’s about having a device that doesn’t crash, data you can afford, and training that’s actually available in your language.”

Based on these frameworks, the researchers categorized participants into three main groups: digitally proactive, digitally cautious, and digitally unaware. The digitally proactive, roughly 20% of the sample, already used digital tools and were seeking more advanced ways to improve efficiency. The cautious, about 50%, were aware of digital options but held back by concerns over cost, complexity, or return on investment. The unaware group, which made up nearly 30%, had minimal interaction with digital technologies and lacked the infrastructure or exposure to consider meaningful adoption.

Rather than treating these groups as static categories, the study proposed targeted interventions to move businesses from one stage of readiness to the next. For the proactive, solutions included access to advanced data tools, cloud storage, and integrated customer management platforms. For the cautious, peer mentoring, pilot trials, and simplified onboarding were recommended. For the unaware, the authors called for community-based digital literacy campaigns, government-backed internet subsidies, and user-friendly platforms designed specifically for non-experts.

“We cannot keep pushing generic solutions into diverse realities,” Mgbame says. “The barber in a village with no stable electricity does not need a Silicon Valley CRM tool. He needs an app that works offline, in his language, and requires no monthly subscription.”

One of the most powerful insights in the study is that the digital divide is not simply about infrastructure—it is also about trust. Many business owners, especially those in the digitally cautious and unaware categories, shared stories of platforms that promised value but delivered confusion or disappointment. Others mentioned fears around data privacy, scams, or customer pushback against digital transactions.

“These communities are not anti-technology,” Mgbame clarifies. “But they’ve seen projects start and fail. They’ve used apps that ate their data. Trust is not built by slogans. It’s built by reliability.”

The authors of the study did not stop at diagnosis—they offered a call to action for multiple stakeholders. Policymakers are urged to recognize underserved SMEs not as charity cases but as investment priorities. Development agencies are encouraged to build digital inclusion metrics into their program designs. Technology companies are challenged to design for diversity—to build platforms that work on basic devices, operate with minimal data, and are locally contextualized. And researchers are reminded that theory must meet street-level reality if it is to be transformative.

Mgbame’s advocacy is rooted not just in research, but in empathy. Having grown up in a context where many family-run businesses functioned without access to digital tools, he understands both the challenges and the resilience of small business owners.

“I know what it means to run a business without backup systems, without cloud access, without any guarantees,” he says. “I’ve watched brilliant traders and craftspeople lose money because a system failed them—not because they failed to learn.”

The study goes further by linking digital inclusion to broader goals such as reducing inequality, promoting environmental resilience, and boosting inclusive economic growth. By equipping small businesses with tools that improve efficiency, reduce waste, and unlock new markets, the authors argue, governments can catalyze entrepreneurship, build community wealth, and enhance national competitiveness.

The study’s policy recommendations are not pie-in-the-sky ideals—they are deeply grounded in feasibility. One recommendation calls for local training hubs that offer basic digital skills through peer-to-peer models. Another suggests that government-funded digital platforms should be made available as public utilities in underserved regions. The researchers also argue for embedding digital access within public service delivery allowing small business owners to register licenses, pay taxes, or apply for grants using simple, mobile-friendly systems.

Mgbame notes that when governments invest in highways, power grids, and public schools, they are investing in public capacity. Digital infrastructure, he argues, should be treated no differently.

“Access to the internet is now as critical as access to roads,” he says. “A business with no online footprint in 2025 is invisible. And we cannot keep allowing our most vulnerable entrepreneurs to remain invisible.”

The emotional weight of the study is found not just in its numbers but in its human stories. There’s the woman in Ilorin who learned to create Facebook ads on her friend’s phone and saw her sales double—until her friend moved away and she lost access to the app. There’s the furniture maker in Akure who built a small website with the help of a university student, only for the domain to expire because no one told him about renewals. These stories are not about failure; they are about potential—unrealized, untapped, and unfairly distributed.

For Mgbame, what’s at stake is not just economic growth but dignity. He argues that when people are denied digital access, they are denied visibility, agency, and full participation in the systems that shape their lives.

“A farmer who cannot check crop prices online is at the mercy of middlemen,” he explains. “A tailor who can’t show her work on social media loses clients to less skilled but better connected competitors. This is not just a technical gap—it’s a power gap.”

In many ways, the study reframes what digital development means in the 21st century. It is not enough to build towers, distribute laptops, or run pilot projects. True digital transformation requires systems thinking—designing technology, policy, and education together, with the end-user in mind. It also requires humility: listening to what underserved entrepreneurs need, rather than prescribing what technocrats think they should want.

What sets Mgbame’s voice apart is his refusal to romanticize either the problem or the solution. He does not assume that every small business must become a tech startup. He does not suggest that an app can replace mentorship, or that automation will solve structural exclusion. Instead, he advocates for grounded innovation—solutions that work in the complexity of real-world constraints.

“I’m not asking for miracles,” he says. “I’m asking for intentionality. Build systems that speak the language of the people using them—literally and metaphorically.”

As more governments turn to digital inclusion as a post-pandemic recovery strategy, the relevance of Mgbame’s work has only grown. Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, initiatives are springing up to digitize MSMEs, integrate them into e-commerce platforms, and train youth in coding and analytics. But many of these efforts still fall into the trap of designing for scale before ensuring relevance. Mgbame’s study offers a blueprint for doing better—starting from the margins, not the center.

In the end, Technology Acceptance and Digital Readiness in Underserved Small Business Sectors is more than a research paper. It is a manifesto for inclusive innovation. It is a plea to see digital equity not as charity, but as strategy. And it is a reminder that the future of the digital economy will be defined not by how quickly technology advances, but by how broadly its benefits are shared.

Azubike Collins Mgbame is part of a growing generation of researchers who are not content with describing inequality. They are redesigning the systems that create it. His work stands as a testament to what is possible when research meets purpose—and when purpose is backed by data, empathy, and relentless clarity.

“I believe in a digital future,” Mgbame says. “But it must be a future where the marketplace is fair, where innovation is human-centered, and where no business is too small to matter.”