E-commerce is Africa’s new opportunity

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in partnership with the African Union and the European Union, has organised the Africa E-commerce Week, which is being held for the first time in Africa.

The aim is to examine ways for African countries to engage in and benefit from e-commerce and the evolving digital economy. The event, at the United Nations headquarters in Gigiri, Nairobi, brings together ministers and other senior government officials, the private sector, civil society and international organisations for a weeklong dialogue to identify innovative ways for shaping African digital economy.

This is timely, coming at a time when Africa is slowly beginning to recognise the importance of e-commerce and e-business.

So much so that African countries are forging ahead to form a single digital economy to reap the benefits of e-commerce, whose value is in trillions of dollars.

UPWARD TRAJECTORY

According to Statista, an online statistics, market research and business intelligence portal, revenue in e-commerce markets for Africa and the Middle East stand at $18,583 million (over Sh1.9 trillion) and is projected to grow to $27,417 million (over Sh2.8 trillion) by 2023.

This upward trajectory can only mean one thing: It is time African governments came together to put the right infrastructure in place to reap from e-commerce.

The goodwill of our African leaders is also clearly demonstrated. In October 2013, seven heads of state from Africa, including President Uhuru Kenyatta, met in Kigali, during the Transform Africa Summit and adopted the Smart Africa Manifesto. In it they committed to provide leadership in accelerating socio-economic development through ICTs.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

That January, the manifesto was endorsed by all heads of state and government of the AU at the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU in Addis Ababa.

So far, 24 African countries — including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, South Sudan, Zambia and South Africa — with a combined population of about 600 million, have taken up the initiative. This is a step in the right direction and can, definitely, boost cross-border e-commerce to the larger African population of about 1.3 billion.

Worldwide, organisations that would have been rendered irrelevant by the emerging technologies are now making lemonade out of that and serving it in big glasses, so to speak.

One such sector is the postal and courier service, where we are witnessing the fusion of the sectors with technology, which has boosted the industry.

Postal Corporation of Kenya (PCK) is repositioning itself to enter the international logistics and e-commerce business and has also come up with a series of innovative products riding on ICT platforms.

DELIVER PRODUCTS

One of the key impediments to e-commerce in Africa has been cited as lack of a national street address system which can help the online shop merchants to deliver their products to their clients without hitch.

The Ministry of ICT, in collaboration with the Communications Authority of Kenya and PCK, is working on a National Addressing System, which will enable the naming, numbering of streets and properties and coding, to facilitate easy identification and location.

The goal is to ensure that every person in the country has an address at which to be reached when necessary. We envisage to have digitised maps for use in the management of settlements and urban communities.

Despite the challenges we face as a continent in exploring the full potential of e-commerce, we have to appreciate the enthusiasm with which people are embracing it. One notable aspect of e-trade which is emerging in Africa is online shopping.

ONLINE SHOPPING

But Africa has also been said to have very low internet penetration with very few people owning computers; so, what could be driving this e-commerce craze, especially in online shopping? Smartphones and mobile money. In fact, Africa can be said to be a mobile e-commerce market with friendly payment methods such as M-Pesa.

Recently, we have seen a series of e-commerce start-ups in Kenya and in the continent. Going by this, we can only say that Africa is the sleeping giant that is slowly waking up and we expect to see more e-commerce-based businesses soon.

The Nairobi conference will explore more opportunities for e-commerce in Africa and also give participants a chance to share, learn and, most importantly, connect.

Mrs Mohammed is the Principal Secretary, State Department for Broadcasting and Telecommunications, Ministry of ICT.