NAIROBI, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Experts on Thursday convened in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, for a two-day meeting aimed at promoting e-commerce in Africa.
The sensitization workshop, focused on the adoption of digital tools within the framework of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), brought together over 100 participants. Attendees included representatives from regional economic blocs, business organizations and government officials across the continent, all working to find ways to boost online sales in the region.
Geoffrey Kamanzi, policy manager for trade in services at the East African Business Council, an umbrella body of the private sector in the East African Community, a regional bloc, said that the lack of a seamless regulatory framework is one of the most significant challenges facing e-commerce in Africa because it reduces the level of trust and confidence on online transactions.
He suggested that the continent could leverage its highly efficient mobile money transfer technologies to enhance e-commerce adoption.
Mobile lending applications offering loans could provide affordable credit solutions to unbanked small-scale traders engaged in e-commerce, Kamanzi suggested.
According to the African Union, 54 out of 55 members have signed the AfCFTA, which covers a population of about 1.3 billion people and has a gross domestic product of about 3.5 trillion U.S. dollars.
Joseph Rotich, director of external trade at the Ministry of Investments, Trade and Industry of Kenya, said that the poor state of postal and courier services in Africa hampers the effectiveness of online sales. He added that intra-African digital sales are affected by the presence of different national currencies that are not directly exchangeable.
Jas Bedi, chairman of the Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency, said that Africa can accelerate the uptake of e-commerce through harmonization policy and standards on taxes for online sales. He added that appropriate conflict resolution mechanisms between buyers and sellers involved in e-commerce could build trust in cross-border digital sales. ■
