The International Trade Centre has called on East Africa’s young people to embrace e-commerce and tap into global online sales worth $26 trillion as the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) gets off the ground in 2021.
“Online marketplaces could drive inclusive growth across Africa, with e-commerce likely to create as many as 3 million jobs by 2025,” ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton said.
She spoke to a forum in Nairobi, on November 19.
Pamela told participants of the event, Trade Beyond Covid19:
“Unpacking the AfCFTA for East Africa, that ditching outmoded business models for e-commerce would drive intra-regional trade and attract benefits such as “opening markets to otherwise isolated rural communities, servicing Africa’s fast-growing consumer market, and offer women access to new business opportunities.”
Trade CS Betty Maina said during the forum that the Kenyan government had “developed a draft National AfCFTA strategy that aspires to contribute towards national development by securing markets for goods and services within the African region.”
UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi also emphasized the vital role of the free trade area to boost growth opportunities across the continent.
“How the AfCFTA facilitates the revival and growth of African small businesses will be key to its success as an engine for Africa’s economic renaissance,” he said.
The implementation of the AfCFTA in Eastern Africa could result in welfare gains of $1.8 billion, a boost to intra-African exports worth more than $1.1 billion, and the creation of more than 2 million new jobs, according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Trademark East Africa.
Pamela added that the opportunities and challenges of e-commerce in Africa interplay with other policy issues.
She called on the AfCFTA members to remove obstacles in the digital space with synchronized regulatory approaches that check the fracturing of African states by technology giants.
The CS said the AfCFTA’s efforts at leveraging digital technologies to boost intra-African trade and investment aligned well with Kenya’s information and communications technology capabilities and national priorities.
She said that prioritizing e-commerce would support Kenya’s efforts to build digital capabilities and integrate micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) into regional value chains.
“For the free trade area to work optimally, there are many technical issues to be worked out. Key among them is putting in place cross-border payment systems to allow countries to trade in their currencies rather than reverting to international payment systems,” she said.
While digital trade offers an innovative tool for industrial leapfrogging and income convergence, some African countries lack the legal framework and enabling environment for digital trade to thrive under the AfCFTA, speakers said.
Some African countries still grapple with a lack of adequate and affordable connectivity and thorny issues such as cybercrime and data privacy.
With a global digital order gradually taking shape, Pamela said that young people and women in business needed to take note urgently of the disruption of old business models.
“E-commerce can lower entry barriers and help connect MSMEs with global markets and value chains by providing the services needed to facilitate their exports.”
As a strong advocate of MSMEs and the economic empowerment of women and young people, Pamela said ITC was well-positioned to support the AfCFTA.
It plans to provide capacity building and advisory services that will enhance the continental business environment, strengthen national and regional trade support institutions, and improve the competitiveness of MSMEs and women and youth-led enterprises under its One Trade Africa programme.
The International Trade Centre is the joint agency of the World Trade Organization and the United Nations.