Rwanda Seeks to Jumpstart African eCommerce in Joining Global Trading Platform

- Digital commerce represents a multi-trillion-dollar market globally, but Africa currently claims only a tiny slice of e-commerce revenues

· Rwanda is the first African hub in an Alibaba-led global trading platform that could offer a model for increasing ecommerce in emerging markets

· The Rwandan pilot project represents an attempt to use digital commerce to increase inclusive growth and provide opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses

· For more information about the Annual Meeting, visit www.weforum.org

Internet users in emerging markets outnumber those in developed markets by a ratio of 2:1. Yet many emerging markets have struggled to access the benefits of digital commerce. The global market in digital commerce is estimated to reach more than $3 trillion this year, yet Africa claims less than $20 billion in ecommerce revenue.

Rwanda is seeking to increase its share of digital commerce revenues by joining the Alibaba-led trading platform, Electronic World Trade Platform, which connects Rwandan and Chinese buyers and sellers. Having signed onto the platform in October 2018, Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame is already seeing benefits.

The opportunity to sell on the platform “brings in the otherwise marginalized, [such as] … the young people, the farmers. This has helped bring them a connection with the consumers,” Kagame explained. He said that extending digital commerce through the trading platforms has “democratized benefits” of global trade.

Jack Ma, Executive Chairman, Alibaba Group Holding, noted that many countries provide incentives and benefits for large companies to participate in global trade; however, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often get left behind.

“We think there should be free trade zones for small businesses,” Ma explained. He views the trading platform as a means to level the playing field for young people and SMEs to give them direct access to global markets.

Rwandan coffee growers have already seen the advantages. Ma noted that the platform initially offered 2,000 bags of coffee for sale, and the merchandise sold out in three days. He projected 200,000 coffee packages would sell this year. Having direct access to Chinese markets means higher profits and the elimination of intermediaries for the coffee farmers.

Is there a risk that Rwanda will come to rely too heavily on a single company’s electronic platform? Kagame reported that, as long as the technology brings job opportunities and revenue to the Rwandan people, he isn’t worried about diversifying the technology.

In the future, Ma predicts that the platform could offer away to increase digital commerce within Africa. Currently, the technology connects Rwanda to Chinese buyers and sellers; however, Ma hopes to add other African countries to the network, which would facilitate intra-African trade. Increasing intra-African trade is already a goal of many nations. Last year, 44 nations signed on to join the African Continental Free Trade Area, which would reduce tariffs and other barriers to intra-continental trade.

Ma sees the technology as helping better distribute the benefits of globalization: “A lot of people don’t like globalization,” he said. “But we believe in globalization.”

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting brings together more than 3,000 global leaders from politics, government, civil society, academia, the arts and culture as well as the media. Convening under the theme, Globalization 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, participants are focusing on new models for building sustainable and inclusive societies in a plurilateral world. For further information, please click here.