@inproceedings{ouattara-etal-2025-bridging,
title = "Bridging Literacy Gaps in {A}frican Informal Business Management with Low-Resource Conversational Agents",
author = "Ouattara, Maimouna and
Kabor{\'e}, Abdoul Kader and
Klein, Jacques and
Bissyand{\'e}, Tegawend{\'e} F.",
editor = "Hettiarachchi, Hansi and
Ranasinghe, Tharindu and
Rayson, Paul and
Mitkov, Ruslan and
Gaber, Mohamed and
Premasiri, Damith and
Tan, Fiona Anting and
Uyangodage, Lasitha",
booktitle = "Proceedings of the First Workshop on Language Models for Low-Resource Languages",
month = jan,
year = "2025",
address = "Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates",
publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.loreslm-1.15/",
pages = "193--203",
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 Moor{\'e}, 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."
}
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modsCollection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
<mods ID="ouattara-etal-2025-bridging">
<titleInfo>
<title>Bridging Literacy Gaps in African Informal Business Management with Low-Resource Conversational Agents</title>
</titleInfo>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Maimouna</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Ouattara</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Abdoul</namePart>
<namePart type="given">Kader</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Kaboré</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Jacques</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Klein</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Tegawendé</namePart>
<namePart type="given">F</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Bissyandé</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<originInfo>
<dateIssued>2025-01</dateIssued>
</originInfo>
<typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
<relatedItem type="host">
<titleInfo>
<title>Proceedings of the First Workshop on Language Models for Low-Resource Languages</title>
</titleInfo>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Hansi</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Hettiarachchi</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Tharindu</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Ranasinghe</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Paul</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Rayson</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Ruslan</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Mitkov</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Mohamed</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Gaber</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Damith</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Premasiri</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Fiona</namePart>
<namePart type="given">Anting</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Tan</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<name type="personal">
<namePart type="given">Lasitha</namePart>
<namePart type="family">Uyangodage</namePart>
<role>
<roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">editor</roleTerm>
</role>
</name>
<originInfo>
<publisher>Association for Computational Linguistics</publisher>
<place>
<placeTerm type="text">Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates</placeTerm>
</place>
</originInfo>
<genre authority="marcgt">conference publication</genre>
</relatedItem>
<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.</abstract>
<identifier type="citekey">ouattara-etal-2025-bridging</identifier>
<location>
<url>https://aclanthology.org/2025.loreslm-1.15/</url>
</location>
<part>
<date>2025-01</date>
<extent unit="page">
<start>193</start>
<end>203</end>
</extent>
</part>
</mods>
</modsCollection>
%0 Conference Proceedings
%T Bridging Literacy Gaps in African Informal Business Management with Low-Resource Conversational Agents
%A Ouattara, Maimouna
%A Kaboré, Abdoul Kader
%A Klein, Jacques
%A Bissyandé, Tegawendé F.
%Y Hettiarachchi, Hansi
%Y Ranasinghe, Tharindu
%Y Rayson, Paul
%Y Mitkov, Ruslan
%Y Gaber, Mohamed
%Y Premasiri, Damith
%Y Tan, Fiona Anting
%Y Uyangodage, Lasitha
%S Proceedings of the First Workshop on Language Models for Low-Resource Languages
%D 2025
%8 January
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
%F ouattara-etal-2025-bridging
%X 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.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.loreslm-1.15/
%P 193-203
Markdown (Informal)
[Bridging Literacy Gaps in African Informal Business Management with Low-Resource Conversational Agents](https://aclanthology.org/2025.loreslm-1.15/) (Ouattara et al., LoResLM 2025)
ACL