Entrepreneurs should join the digital market to expose Kenyan good to the global market, participants at an e-commerce trade conference in Nairobi were told yesterday.
The digital inclusivity especially by the dominant small and micro enterprise sector should leverage on the increased online purchases for growth.
European commission vice-president for digital single market Andrus Ansip said there exists growth opportunities for entrepreneurs in the country in e-commerce industry.
“Online trading can help to make more goods and services available for consumers, increase market access for SMEs and encourage investments,” Ansip said during the Africa E-commerce week.
The digital inclusion is also set to reduce the reliance of imported products and bridge the current account deficit.
According to the recent Kenya Nationals Bureau of Statistics, the difference on flow of goods and investments into and out of country hit Sh85.8 billion between April to June 2018 brought about by larger increases in merchandise imports relative to exports.
Merchandise imports valued grew by 7.6 per cent to Sh437.1 billion while merchandise exports increased by 6.3 per cent to Sh159.6 billion in the second quarter of 2018.
However, the policies around e-commerce have made it difficult for enterprises’ existence, supporting only 30 per cent of these ventures.
Ansip said that there was need for government to look to factors such as sector taxes and fees, high prices for data in some markets, made worse by relatively low income levels.
“Broadband internet is still unaffordable for many and rural areas tend not to be covered. This results into overall service quality despite digital demand is immense,” Ansip said.
The event was co-hosted by EU Commission, UNCTAD and African Union partners.
In Africa, e-commerce is valued to be worth Sh5.12 trillion ($50 billion) by end of this year, up from Sh820 billion ($8 billion) five years ago.
Google’s Consumer Connected Study 2017 highlighted that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter contributed to 15 per cent of online shopping in Kenya.
Similarly, Nielsen Consumer Confidence and Spending Intentions survey released in March indicated that one out of every four consumers in Kenya browse for products and services online. As a result, online shopping now accounts for 36 per cent of sales in the retail sector.
“It’s easy to think electronic market presence is economic progress. But we must build productive capacities so that the electronic market presence is a possibility to sell ‘made in Africa’, not just to buy ‘made in India’ and ‘made in China’,” UNCTAD secretary general Mukhisa Kutuyi (pictured) said at the conference which runs this week.