Kenya ranks poorly in e-commerce

Kenya has been ranked seventh in Africa in e-commerce uptake and 85th globally, according to a new survey. Mauritius ranks top in Africa in the United Nations Conference on the Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index and position 55 globally. It is followed by Nigeria and South Africa in the top three positions on the continent while the Netherlands ranks top globally followed by Singapore and Switzerland. 

UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi (pictured) said Africa’s performance was nothing short of dismal. “Africa trails behind the rest of the world in its preparedness to engage in and benefit from the digital economy as three-quarters of the African population has yet to start using the Internet,” he said at the ongoing Africa eCommerce Week in Nairobi yesterday.

“However, the continent is showing progress in key indicators related to B2C e-commerce.” Mr Kituyi, however, said since 2014, sub-Saharan Africa has surpassed world growth on three out of the four indicators used in the index. There were about 21 million online shoppers in Africa last year.