By 2018, the African e-commerce market is projected to soar to US$ 50 billion from just US$ 8 billion in 2013 according to reports. To some these figures show gradually the growth of ecommerce in Africa. However there are those who feel Africa should be benefitting more. The huge some of ecommerce transactions and enterprises springing up in the past years have been focusing on serving local markets in Africa.



Perhaps it’s time to start thinking markets outside Africa. Put side by side Africa’s ecommerce projection for 2018 with estimation of over US$15 trillion for annual business-to-business transactions and well over US$1.2 trillion for annual business-to-consumer trade in the world according to UNCTAD, and you see the huge opportunities Africa is yet to tap into.



While a large number of developed countries keep benefitting from international trade, Africa is still lagging; According to eMarketeer (July 2014) the total international B2C trade from the entire Africa and Middle East region represented only about 2.2% of the world’s total in 2013.





How can Africa start picking up on international trade?

The invent of internet has made the world a global unit. With just a few clicks from wherever you are, one can access any country’s market. Gone are the days you have to travel thousands of miles to do business transactions. It has evolved the way we do business in the new age we’re in.

E-commerce perhaps is one of the very useful application areas of the internet. An ecommerce platform is specifically built for Business transactions to be carried out largely through the internet, they form a gateway through which buyers and sellers can connect and do business. A few example of such platforms in the world are Amazon, Ebay, and Alibaba.

Alibaba as a typical example, paved way for small manufacturers in China into global market. In 2013, they had 231 million active users, each of whom made an average 49 purchases a year, for more than 11 billion orders annually.

Ecommerce brings the unique opportunity to open access to international markets for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Africa; for example a small farmer somewhere in Kano, Nigeria is not limited to only buyers in Nigeria alone; he can have buyers anywhere in the world.

It’s been 2013 ecommerce came to Africa, and very few initiatives are towards promoting Africa to the global market. On their own, efforts by Africa’s enterprises to access markets outside their shores have been the usual brick ’n’ mortar way. Over the years its been almost impossible for African enterprises to trade through platforms like Alibaba, amazon and Ebay as they have access restrictions.

As ecommerce continues to record some success in Africa, the application of ecommerce into cross-border trade is still very much untouched.

Of course the difficulties are there, but efforts should start showing- something like what this particular startup is doing in Africa-Connecting Africa trade, promoting locally made products in Africa and connecting Africa businesses to global markets.

A step like this can be very scary considering several factors impeding Africa ecommerce from growing but Cokodeal has dug in; the past four years, they’ve gained experience, growing network and making their business work. Helping local businesses in Africa connect with buyers within Africa, Europe, Asia, and USA through its online marketplace, broker service and digital marketing expertise.

The profits are huge and the early players stand the chance to reap huge, Africa has enough to offer a large market and these are the kind of developments we want to be seeing in ecommerce in Africa.

Platforms like cokodeal might not be there yet, but we get the idea; and with bit of support, just like China, Africa can be the next international trade hub through them.