Southern Africa: SADC Experts Adopt E-Commerce Strategy

By NewsfromAfrica

BALACLAVA- - The e-commerce readiness assessment report, strategy and plan of action for the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) which has been under review since 2010 is now ready for submission to the ICT Ministerial meeting next month, according to experts who validated the documents in Mauritius last week.

According to the Information and Communication Service of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), experts drawn from across the Community who adopted the strategy document during a session on 17 April 2012 also recommended the enactment of harmonized legal and regulatory frameworks to support e-commerce development within the sub-region.

They also called for the passing of e-transaction, cyber-criminality, personal data protection, and consumer protection laws and reforms in the banking sector to harmonize laws and regulations for the integration of e-commerce requirements including e-signature and authentication, mobile-banking e-payment and e-transfer.

The documents that were later endorsed by the SADC ICT sub-sector committee meeting (18-19 April 2012), stress the need for capacity building programs for e-commerce, support to Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

The two-day ICT and Trade experts meeting that validated the sub-regional e-commerce strategy and plan of action convened from 16-17 April 2012 in Balaclava, Mauritius as a joint ECA, SADC activity brought together more than fifty experts from the fifteen (15) SADC member States drawn from ICT and Trade Ministries.

It was an initial priority activity towards the implementation of e-SADC strategy adopted by SADC ICT Ministers in May 2010.

Welcoming the participants, Mr. Trilock Dwarka, Chairman of Mauritius ICT Authority noted that e-commerce is a key growth sector which holds the promise for job creation, especially for the youth. The e-Commerce strategy will also fast track intra-regional trade, economic integration and socio-economic development, experts agree.

Mr. Dwarka told the meeting that the government of Mauritius and the ICT Authority were conscious of the need to keep abreast with developments and benefits of e-commerce and in this regard had enacted necessary legislation for electronic transactions and data protection.

On behalf of SADC Secretariat, Ms. Cecilia Mamelodi-Onyadile, a Senior Programme Officer for Communications unveiled the e-commerce strategy activity roadmap and called upon all the SADC member States to provide inputs and contribution towards the finalization of the process.

Speaking on behalf of the ECA, Mr. Sizo D. Mhlanga, Officer-In-Charge of the ECA sub-regional office of Southern Africa recalled that “e-Commerce is one of the most important facets of the Internet to have emerged in recent times and is one of the main desired outcomes from a country’s Internet readiness.”

He underscored the growing importance of e-commerce as an economic sector because it taps into technologies such as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems and automated data collection systems.

The ECA official cited concerns such as limited Internet access, poor infrastructure, inhibiting policy and legal environments, insufficient e-banking and payment infrastructure and lack of online culture as some of the issues that need to be addressed in order to create a conducive environment for e-commerce to develop in Africa.

Also speaking at the opening session, the Minister of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) of Mauritius, Hon. Tassarajen Pillay Chedumbrum, reiterated the fact that Africa, “with its immense reservoir of natural and land resources, has the potential to become the next pole of development in the world.”

He however, observed that this could not be realized without addressing the issue of Internet access and affordability. In the same vein, the Minister stressed the need for concerted efforts towards the development of “the human capital and an improved legal, institutional and infrastructural framework in the ICT sector in order to allow e-commerce to take off.”  

He reaffirmed the strong belief in Mauritius that e-commerce is slowly becoming an essential means for the exchange of goods and services within the region and is therefore prepared to contribute fully towards making e-commerce a success in SADC.

The sub-regional e-commerce strategy development process was launched in the framework of ECA-SADC Multi-year program through collaboration among ECA’s divisions including the Regional Integration and Trade Division (RITD), the Africa Trade Policy Centre (ATPC), the ICT, Science and Technology Division (ISTD) and the ECA Sub-regional Office of Southern Africa (ECA SRO-SA).