‘E-commerce growth in Africa remains relatively low’

With e-commerce evolving to become a significant driver of global economic transformation, its growth in Africa has remained relatively low when compared to other regions.

Hence, tech start-up, Klasha in partnership with TechCabal, has produced a whitepaper on the state of e-commerce and its opportunities.

This white paper examines the state of international e-commerce in Africa, focusing on the key players, contributing to the development of the e-commerce sector and barriers hampering its growth.

It also addresses strategies to remove the barriers and facilitates international trade on the continent, emphasising the unified digital payment solution startup and its roles in addressing these challenges.

This paper addresses the questions on the mind of every entrepreneur and policymaker, which include ways to tackle the barriers and how to accelerate Africa’s e-commerce development to become a global force and serve as a positive influence in advancing her economy.

Africa’s Internet penetration also supports this growth.

It was learnt that there are approximately 465 million Internet users on the continent, and this figure is estimated to reach nearly half a billion by 2025.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) also reported that online shoppers in Africa had surged annually by 18per cent since 2014.

According to a survey by Nielsen, consumers in Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya were 40 per cent more likely to either maintain the same shopping levels they had before the pandemic or increase them.

However, e-commerce growth in Africa remains relatively low compared to other regions.

For instance, the percentage of online shopping traffic in Africa still represents less than two per cent of the total number of e-commerce users globally. This data shows several barriers to actualising the continent’s full potential.