Stephen M. Mutula

Efficient banking solutions are an integral part of the business integration of South African and Nigerian economies as the two largest economies in the continent. Security, effectiveness, and integration of banking systems are critical to the sustainable development of the African continent. Therefore, an empirical analysis of the production of research on banking services and systems was conducted. The aim of the study was to examine the robustness of the research findings on banking systems in terms of their importance for the economic sustainability of the continent in the era of the fourth industrial revolution. The study adopted a bibliometric analysis using software clusters to visualize the results. Due to higher visibility of outputs and likely citations, the results showed that the key terms from Google Scholar are ranked higher than outputs from Scopus. Main research interests were related to internet banking (f = 70), e-payment systems (f = 57), telephone banking (f = 56), automated teller machines (f = 54), and mobile banking (f = 40). The results also showed a very low research interest in the technical aspect of online banking services such as security (f = 19, TLS = 40), authentication (f = 17, TLS =33), network security (f =13, TLS = 33), computer crime (f = 16, TLS = 42), and online banking (f = 11, TLS =32). The study found there were insufficient outputs in the area of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and banking services in Africa. Future research trends should examine the impact of the 4IR and big data on the banking system, regional economic integration, and sustainable growth in the continent.

The firm’s effective alignment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) capabilities with the SME’s business process to achieve agile communication strategies will distinguish profitable and failing firms in this global market milieu. The paper examined SMEs’ communication strategies in South Africa and Nigeria by evaluating their ability to align business and IT to promote innovation and competitive edge in their operations. Quantitative data from 230 SMEs in Nigeria and South Africa were presented. The findings indicated that the business manager’s knowledge of IT understanding is limited (= .29), the effectiveness of IT and business liaison and cooperation (= .30), and the dynamic of IT-based decision-making (= .33), and the SME’s knowledge sharing experiences through organization learning (= –.07). These findings showed a lack of communication effectiveness due to the inability to align ICT capabilities with the SME’s communications strategies. Similarly, an inverse correlation between communication and ICT infrastructure (–.26); between communication and skill (–.32); between communication and business and IT governance (–.71); between communication and ICT value that the SMEs derived from their use of information communication technology (–.78) due to lack of business and IT alignment. The paper recommends that SMEs must not rely on the acquisition of ICT infrastructure but must ensure its integration with their business processes.

Acknowledgment
The financial assistance of the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences- Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (NIHSS-CODESRIA) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions are those of the author and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NIHSS- CODESRIA.