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Briefing Paper

E-commerce challenges in Africa: AISI


issues , constraints, opportunities
By Aida Opoku Mensah, Assefa Bahta and Sizo Mhlanga

Policy Goal sometimes also categorized under four main areas


To assist countries to set up laws, infrastructure of activity: business-to-business (“B2B”), business-to
and skills development so that e-commerce can -government (“B2G”), business-to-consumer (“B2C”)
become widespread. The main route is through and consumer-to-consumer (“C2C”).
National Information and Communications Infra-
structure (NICI) plans, where many countries see a The Challenge facing Africa
priority to boost e-commerce through passing rel- Although a number of e-commerce activities are emerg-
evant laws, providing more telecommunications and ing in most African countries, its growth has been slow
Internet access and through offering skills develop- for a variety of reasons, including low levels of Internet
ment. E-commerce could be particularly important penetration and limited communication infrastructure.
for the development of small- and medium-size Many Africans are still unaware of the opportunities of-
enterprises. fered by e-commerce.

The African private sector consists mostly of small,


Overview medium, and micro-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the
Africa is in danger of being left behind on a new and informal sector. These businesses are widely seen as a
growing worldwide market that reached US$1.7 trillion potential engine of growth in the information economy.
in 2004 - that year’s total value of e-business transac- E-commerce offers huge potential to SMEs, includ-
tions. Over the past five years, the Internet, e-commerce ing potential strategic benefits such as possibilities of
and e-business have all grown dynamically. The process creating new industries, developing new content and
of innovation, driven by transformation in business sup- chances to find or create employment.
ply chains and the growth of online marketplaces, has
widened and intensified in all parts of every major econ- However, companies and the private sector in Africa
omy. In the Asia-Pacific region, activities are expected have not been active initiators of e-commerce. For ex-
to increase more than four-fold in three years, from $77 ample, a survey in Ghana (part of a Ghana SCAN-ICT
billion in 2001 to $339 billion in 2004. Total spending study) revealed that about 65 per cent of ICT com-
through worldwide business-to-business transactions panies do not have a presence on the Internet and
was estimated to increase more than 16 times, from 84 per cent reported that they were not involved in e-
$226 billion in 2000 to $3,775 billion in 2004. commerce. In Morocco, according to the Ministry of
Industry, Trade and Telecommunications, the propor-
Electronic commerce (“e-commerce”) is the buying tion of businesses that use the Internet grew from 20
and selling of information, products and services via per cent to 42 per cent in 1999 but only 8 per cent
the computer networks which make up the Internet. of businesses in all sectors currently use the Internet
A Pan African E-commerce Initiative, sponsored by for placing orders online. A similar study on Mozam-
the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the bique shows that e-commerce and e-business do not
International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in formally exist in Mozambique. The major obstacles
2001 adopted the European Commission definition: include lack of suitable legal framework and security
“Electronic commerce is about doing business elec- instruments, inadequate banking systems, poorly de-
tronically. It is based on the processing and transmis- veloped telecommunications infrastructure, especially
sion of data, including text, sound and video. It en- beyond urban areas, and high rates of illiteracy. Twenty
compasses many diverse activities including electronic companies out of 66 surveyed have websites and this
trading of goods and services, online delivery of digi- low proportion by world standards was considered a
tal content, electronic fund transfers, electronic share barrier for e-commerce and e-business development.
trading, electronic bills of lading, commercial auctions,
online sourcing, public procurement, direct consumer Much still needs to be done to encourage e-commerce
marketing, and after-sales service”. E-commerce is in Africa. Key steps include the rapid development of
E-commerce challenges in Africa: issues , constraints, opportunities

human resources, greater attention paid to e-literacy E-commerce Legislation, Regulations and Policy
among citizens and activities to build capacity, par-
Country Policy Document
ticularly to provide a skills base among SMEs for e-
commerce. Governments should encourage business Law No. 15/2004 on E-signature and Establish-
Egypt ment of the Information Technology Industry Devel-
start-ups and incubation projects that advance this opment Authority (ITIDA).
activity, including through public-private partnerships, The Electronic Transactions Act 2000 (August
and to pay particular attention to getting women en- 2000).
gaged in e-enterprises. Mauritius
Regulations - The Information Technology (Miscel-
laneous Provisions) Act 1998.
A new form of e-commerce, which follows the rapid Comité Interministériel pour le Développement et la
growth of wireless technologies, is mobile commerce Morocco
Promotion du Commerce Electronique, which has
(m-commerce), which is likely to have significant im- also produced a preliminary report.
pact in Africa. M-commerce is the buying and selling
of goods and services using mobile telephones or per- Electronic Communications and Transactions Act
South Africa
[No. 25 of 2002]
sonal digital assistants (PDAs). It can also be used for
Electronic Exchanges and Electronic Commerce
the main types of e-commerce – B2B, B2C, B2G and Tunisia
Law [enacted in August 2000]
C2C. Many African societies predominantly use cash
for transactions, because of their mixture of formal and Tunisia is a leader among developing countries in ICT
non-formal economies, and this provides the basis for development and competitiveness, and has been ex-
a surge of m-commerce in Africa, especially for SMEs porting software and IT services since 1999. This is
in rural and remote areas. Approximately 0.03 per cent attributed to achievements with improving the regula-
of Africans own bank accounts, compared to 6 per tory framework, infrastructure, business and develop-
cent of Africans who have a mobile telephone. ment support, and education. In the World Economic
Forum’s Networked Readiness Index of 104 countries,
The Internet is the driving force for the growth of e- published in March 2005, Tunisia ranked top of African
commerce. This means that Africa’s growth potential countries on the deployment of ICT in its economy.
is limited by the lack of infrastructure (connectivity) and
equipment. The number of Internet subscribers grew by Egypt, through the Ministry of Communications and
more than 150 per cent last year in several sub-Saharan Information Technology (MCIT), has also developed an
African countries. There are now eight mobile phones enabling environment and infrastructure. This includes
for every 100 people in Africa, up from six in 2003. An encouraging the creation of new firms based on new
added advantage is that there is a growing convergence technology products and services, improving the skills
of Internet and mobile communication and handsets of the workforce, using electronic documents and de-
have acquired functionalities that only a few years ago veloping an infrastructure for making e-payments. One
could only be found on personal computers. undertaking is a Legislation Project for e-business,
addressing issues such as e-payment, e-contracting,
Policy approaches customs and taxation, and “cyber” crimes committed
During an ECA/IDRC study in 2000-1, it was found on the Internet or by computer. Egypt has also pre-
that businesses and others in the North African coun- pared a law permitting electronic signatures, to facili-
tries of Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia were adopting e- tate Government and business use of electronic docu-
commerce. The report notes: “All three countries have ments.
recognized the important role of government in setting
up the conditions within which e-commerce can be Through the assistance of ECA in supporting national
developed, and appear to be moving both to amend e-strategies via the National Information and Commu-
necessary legislation and provide a demonstration ef- nication Infrastructure (NICI) plans, other countries are
fect by launching pilot projects”. beginning to recognise the importance of the sector.
For instance, Burundi, Comoros, Cameroon, Gambia,
The same survey covered three countries in Southern Ghana, Mali and Tanzania have outlined plans to de-
Africa (Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa) and velop e-commerce through sectors (“NICI Pillars”) as
found that e-commerce had a “high profile in only one described in the table below:
of the three countries surveyed at this time, although
processes are under way in the other two which could
lead to more attention to the issues involved”. South
Africa’s Green Paper on e-commerce is one of the
continent’s most thorough analyses of what needs to
be done.

The table shows 5 countries that have strong legisla-


tion on e-commerce.
Briefing Paper

Country NICI Policy Statement on e-commerce

Burundi Trade and industry - One of the activities listed in the priority sector of trade and industry is the promotion of e-commerce.

Improving the legal and regulatory environment, adopting laws and other regulations is a strategic pillar, and will concen-
Comoros trate on the areas including intellectual property, management of the .km Internet domain for facilitating e-commerce, and
other Internet-based activities.

Cameroon E-commerce is listed as one of the priority sectors of the Cameroon NICI policy document.

Trade and commerce: Specific objectives under this priority area of the draft NICI policy and plans for The Gambia include:
- To develop virtual operating companies and e-merchants accounts;
- To facilitate the immediate launching of e-banking and an electronic payment system in the country in collaboration with
Gambia the banking institutions;
- To design and facilitate appropriate ICT training programmes geared towards developing e-commerce competence at
both business and technical levels;
- To encourage Internet and e-commerce activities to support the tourism industry.

Trade, industry and services: Objectives of this sectoral application of the Mali NICI policy are:

Mali - Utilizing ICTs to collect, verify and diffuse information in the area of trade, industry and services;
- Promoting the creation of ICT industries;
- Promoting the development of electronic commerce and e-business.

Developing a globally competitive value-added services sector, a regional business service and ICT hub to encourage and
Ghana facilitate the use of open electronic marketplaces, secure e-business solutions, electronic signatures, electronic public
procurement and electronic payment systems to support the development of electronic commerce in the country.

Service sector: The policy objectives, challenges and policy statements of the service sector in the Tanzanian National
Information and Communications Technologies policy include:
- Establishing an environment conducive for e-commerce transactions and competition;
Tanzania - Encouraging more usage of ICT in financial services (banking, insurance, etc);
- Promoting the use of ICT to enhance efficiency, effectiveness and continuity in the provision of services and basic utili-
ties, especially in billing and payment systems;
- Developing and deploying a nationwide e-Tourism system.

One key reason for the slow development of e-com- • Electronic payments: Online payment using credit
merce in Africa is that there is not an overall policy cards is a missing component of the African busi-
framework (with the exception of the five countries ness environment, which is often cash-based. Elec-
mentioned) covering aspects such as technical, eco- tronic payments will involve central banks and other
nomic and political. Policy considerations when creat- trade and financial institutions.
ing an enabling environment include: • Copyright and intellectual property rights: Leg-
islation on copyright and intellectual property rights
• Encryption and decryption techniques provide on the Internet is still in its infancy, and uncertainty
authentication, authorization, confidentiality and about such legislation contributes to inhibiting busi-
integrity to services, increasing the security of e- ness investment.
commerce transactions. They are necessary, for in-
stance, for processing credit card information. In addition, policies need to address infrastructure de-
• Digital signatures and electronic contracts are velopment, which is key to the developing electronic
relevant, for instance in cases of dispute between commerce. Infrastructure that can play an important
trading partners in an e-commerce transaction. role for businesses includes cost-efficient communi-
• Certification authorities secure electronic transac- cation technologies such as broadband, satellite con-
tions and act as trusted third parties to verify infor- nections and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). It is
mation about parties. African certification authori- only possible to implement and operate e-commerce
ties must take part in the international framework initiatives if there are modern banking and insurance
for supporting ways to link certification mechanisms firms operating, and these do not exist in some African
and the mutual recognition of different certification countries. It is also important to raise awareness and
authorities. to offer training programmes that target the business
• Consumer protection: In an electronic market place community in particular and the public in general.
it is not easy for consumers to identify and localize
suppliers so it is necessary to promote protection
mechanisms.
E-commerce challenges in Africa: issues , constraints, opportunities

ECA’s contribution issues, as well as the need to expand access into the
Developing e-commerce is part of the work of the ECA’s NICI process.
Department of Information for Sustainable Develop-
ment. The particular area of focus is to help States and Further reading
Regional Economic Communities develop the infra-
structure and other facilities, as outlined above, which ECA, 2002, “SCAN-ICA Country Report: Ethiopia, Mo-
will make it possible for e-commerce to take root and rocco and Mozambique”.
flourish in Africa.
ECA 2003, “SCAN-ICT: Indicators of Information and
The ECA and IDRC conducted a draft report involv- Communications Technologies”. ECA, October 2003
ing teams visiting 12 countries in four subregions. “The also http://www.scan-ict.org/.
Pan African initiative on e-commerce” resulted from the
1999 African Development Forum on ICTs and their ECA/IDRC, 2001: “Pan-African initiative on e-com-
contribution to Africa’s development. Findings includ- merce”, November 2001.
ed reviews of how States are handling e-commerce
as well as policy recommendations. Ongoing research eMarketer: http://www.emarketer.com
continues, for instance, the legal framework for e-com-
merce has been researched as part of preparations for Goldstein, Andrea and O’Connor, David. “E-commerce
the World Summit on the Information Society (Decem- for Development: Prospects and Policy Issues.” Orga-
ber 2003 and November 2005). nization for Economic Cooperation and Development,
September 2000.
The key area of work is to help countries design na-
tional e-strategies, including e-commerce, via National The Economist 2005, “The real digital divide”, in The
Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Economist, March 12th18th,Vol. 374, No.
plans. Burundi, Comoros, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, 8417, pp. 11, 78
Mali and Tanzania are some of the countries that have
outlined plans to develop e-commerce in this way. ECA UNCTAD 2002, E-commerce and Development Re-
will continue to work with its member States to support port. New York and Geneva: UNCTAD
e-commerce and especially m-commerce activities
from a policy perspective, including incorporating pri- UNCTAD 2004, E-commerce and Development Re-
vacy and data protection, security, wireless regulatory port. New York and Geneva: UNCTAD

The activities mentioned in this brief have been sup-


ported by the International Development Research
Center (IDRC), the European Union, the Norwegian
Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD),
Industry Canada, the Government of Finland and
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenar-
beit (GTZ).

For more on ECA’s work on ICTs, please visit


http://www.uneca.org/aisi

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