Africa's Prescription - eCommerce Ecosystem

Online Business in Africa: The Corona Virus (Covid-19) has changed business forever for the African continent and indeed the entire world. Lockdowns have hurt traditional brick & mortar businesses with some closing down since the start of the pandemic... A lot of African countries much like the rest of the world are struggling to grow their economies as Covid-19 continuously puts a stranglehold on economies with multiple waves... Governments continue to encourage people to get vaccinated, wear masks, wash hands and work from home to help stop the spread of Covid-19. The mantra that "By Standing Apart, We Stand Together" is echoed throughout most African countries fighting the deadly pandemic.

If you think things will be the same because several vaccines have been created then you are one of the few... Naturally, people want to survive so a threat to human life at this scale alters behavior much faster than anything else; that change in behavior has inevitably affected the way we communicate and conduct business. Cultures are evolving faster to account for the risk of transmission and infection. Most businesses have realized that they don't need to rent traditional office space for example and that they actually save loads of money in rentals if their employees work from home (#telecommute)... Telecommuting is not a new concept but the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated its acceptance worldwide. Another sector whose acceptance has been accelerated during this pandemic is eCommerce and the use of online tools as businesses realize that in order to survive, they still need to reach their clients even during a pandemic or strict lockdown periods. 

While some businesses are rushing, perhaps in a panic, trying to understand eCommerce, other businesses that had already invested in eCommerce are now focusing on tightening and improving their positions in dCommerce, mCommerce, vCommerce etc (We will explain these in a later article).  Some people are voluntarily throwing in the towel during this Covid phase. At zonline.africa we believe this is an opportunity for Africa as a whole to unite and create opportunities to more efficiently and effectively trade with one another; a new narrative for PanAfricanism. The coronavirus has shown governments just how vulnerable their countries are to diseases from other cultures and continents - this inevitably could result in countries working hard to produce everything within their borders or trade with those cultures most close to them. The global village as we know it is changing and birthing new rules of engagement. 

If Africa unites and makes it easier, in substance and in fact, for countries to trade with each other then we will see a new Africa that is independent of handouts... an Africa that will have more to offer the world at competitive pricing. Already Africans are doing exceptionally well as individuals but our "disjointedness" is one of our major weakness... we can easily fix this by changing our attitudes towards one another (#panafricanism)!!! When your neighbor’s lifestyle improves, the whole community benefits from better valuation… it follows that if Africa really wants a better valuation of the African community, then we need to unite and support each other’s progress - birth a new Pan-Africanism narrative. Surely we can adopt better policies that promote more efficient cross-border collaborations.

Technology-supported PanAfricanism will save African businesses while better-serving consumers... and the sooner we as African businesses and entrepreneurs realize that, the quicker we can liberate Africa and begin to trade with the rest of the world as equal partners not pet allies. Online technologies such as eCommerce have saved a lot of businesses during this Covid-19 phase and it's a no-brainer that Africa needs to create technology that will advance both formal and informal traders to propel it to become a dominant continent. We already have exceptional products and services in Africa but the problem is that they are not easily visible and accessible outside our immediate country borders and even less visible outside the African continent... The answer is transforming Africa into a united online marketplace that provides the new narrative for Pan-Africanism; this is what www.zonline.africa is about.

There are Regional Economic Communities in existence already such as the COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa), ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), EAC (East African Community), ECCAS (Economic Community of Central African States) and the recent AfCFTA (Africa Contentinental Free Trade Area) launched by the AU are all excellent first step moves to unite Africa's economic progress. Covid-19 has however made this concern more urgent and we hope that organizations such as these will support this www.zonline.africa initiative aimed at ensuring that every African business entity no matter how big or small has a reliable digital footprint that guarantees within reason their visibility online to the entire African continent and beyond. Technology will make our African products and services readily available and this newfound economic progress will create millions of jobs across Africa (more on the jobs in a follow-up article).

We are a new project and we are looking to many people across Africa to get involved in this humble project. We need to ensure that every voice is heard and that the processes are fluid no matter which country you are in (currently easier said than done)... We invite Africa's movers and shakers to reach out to us and let's get the conversation going and ensure that everything is completed within the next couple of weeks... everything to get us started at least and then build-on as we progress. This is a solution for Africa by Africans. Anything in Africa that is for sale should end up on our own marketplaces such as zonline.africa available to Africans and the world to acquire. We are working on ensuring a smooth payment system, so all the banks operating in Africa and payment aggregators will need to join this project... perhaps we may see a new African currency in one form or another - who knows... all we want is sustainable progress!

We are not trying to simplify this complex eCommerce ecosystem. The major challenges for eCommerce to excel in Africa include:

1. building a simple marketplace that will be adaptable to the African way of doing business
2. creating a mobile payment solution that will be easy to use and allow for fluid cross-border payments
3. solving the logistics nightmare across the continent - it's currently cheaper to ship 100kgs from China to anywhere in Africa than it is to transport it from one country to another within Africa, from Zimbabwe to Nigeria for example. Inadequate infrastructure and bad policies largely contribute to this challenge.

Other challenges include customs policies that are a hindrance to cross-border commerce... political instabilities are also a major hurdle including bribery and pirates in some parts of the continent. We also have to fight the bad reputation for doing business with Africa in general and write a new positive narrative... There are other challenges but these are some of the major ones. The good news is that they are fixable - we can fix or mitigate them... together!!!

Despite the above challenges, we as Africans need to get this conversation started and progress it to tangible results because the opportunity is right now and we have the skills to get this done... we need to truly come together and collaborate!!! The question now is how much do Africans love Africa??? Hopefully enough to work together, to collaborate so that we can become a first-world continent - the new Pan-Africanism narrative.

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