By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Africa’s e-commerce market could grow by more than $14.5 billion between 2025 and 2030, a report released by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with Jumia has revealed.
The report also indicated that this milestone can be achieved by increasing the number of women selling on online platforms and by providing them with better training and financial support to help them match sales made by men.
It was further stated that women comprise half of all active e-commerce vendors in Africa, though they tend to run smaller-scale businesses and feature prominently in high-competition, low-value segments like beauty.
On the Jumia platform, just over a third of businesses in Côte d’Ivoire and over half in Kenya and Nigeria are owned by women.
In the report titled Women and e-commerce in Africa, it was found that COVID-19 accelerated the growth of the sector as well as digital entrepreneurship in Africa and that more women have embraced digital business.
However, it was also noted that more can be done to promote women’s entrepreneurship and help women overcome e-commerce challenges.
For example, e-commerce marketplace platforms are well-positioned to target women-owned businesses with training and to encourage women’s participation in higher-value segments such as electronics.
Women could also strengthen their businesses by taking advantage of emerging fintech offerings, such as in-platform loans, which women currently access at much lower rates than men.
The report leveraged data from a leading e-commerce firm, Jumia, as well as from surveys of vendors in Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, and Nigeria.
“It is absolutely essential for women to be factored in, given the future of e-commerce. Africa is just at the start of its e-commerce growth trajectory.
“Now is the time to ensure women entrepreneurs are the leaders of Africa’s digital journey,” the Chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and Group Head of Institutional Affairs, Ms Juliet Anammah, said.
“E-commerce in Africa is thriving, yet we are already seeing a widening gender gap in the sector. IFC’s report not only highlights the gap but also shows how it might be addressed so that women entrepreneurs can succeed in this important and rapidly growing marketplace,” the IFC Vice President for the Middle East and Africa, Sérgio Pimenta, said.
Supporting women entrepreneurs has taken on renewed urgency since the outbreak of COVID-19. In the first year of the pandemic, women-owned businesses in the three countries studied suffered reduced sales of 39 per cent, compared to only a 28 per cent drop for men-owned businesses.
The research was undertaken by Digital2Equal, an IFC-led initiative conducted in partnership with the European Commission, which brought together 17 leading technology companies operating across the global online marketplace to boost opportunities for women in emerging markets.
Additional funding was provided by the Umbrella Fund for Gender Equality. The research was carried out by IFC in partnership with global advisory firm Kantar Public.
Adedapo Adesanya