Stories

ITC @ Africa eCommerce week

10 December 2018
ITC News
Exploring digital innovation and new opportunities for eCommerce in Africa

The International Trade Centre (ITC) will this week join the first Africa eCommerce Week, which is being organized in Nairobi, Kenya, on 10-14 December. Under the theme ‘Empowering African economies in the digital era’, participants at Africa eCommerce Week will examine ways to enhance the ability of African countries to engage in and benefit from e-commerce and the evolving digital economy.

Jointly organized by UNCTAD, the African Union and the European Union, and hosted by the Government of Kenya, the event is bringing together enterprises, policymakers and other stakeholders from across Africa to identify innovative ways for shaping the continent’s digital economy.

ITC Executive Director Arancha González will on Monday 10 December participate in a Ministerial Roundtable: Accelerating the e-Trade Readiness of African countries. The roundtable will discuss how ITC’s work in Africa on facilitating trade through sector focused national strategies, skills development and the nurturing of entrepreneurial talent can contribute to improved participation and success in online business.

Several African countries that have undergone an ‘eTrade Readiness Reviews’ are already receiving support from ITC to boost their IT and IT-enabled service sectors – notably Senegal and Uganda, as part of the fourth phase of the Netherlands Trust Fund (NTFIV). ITC is supporting eight beneficiaries of the NTFIV programme to participate in Africa eCommerce Week.

At Africa eCommerce week, ITC will also share lessons from its Enabling the future of e-commerce in Rwanda project, which is run in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry and in partnership with GIZ, the German development agency, and DHL, a global logistics company. In this session, which will take place on Wednesday 12 December at 3pm in Room 9, partners and digital entrepreneurs from Rwanda will offer insights into the intentions of the project and the best practice learnt so far.

Also on Wednesday 12 December, James Howe, ITC senior eCommerce adviser will be participating in a session entitled ‘Fostering Skills for the Digital Economy in Africa’, in which speakers will be exploring current initiatives in Africa to bridge the digital skills gap for SMEs.

More than 1,000 participants from 48 countries are expected to attend Africa eCommerce Week, including entrepreneurs, CEOs and civil society representatives.