E-commerce in Africa shows huge potential

BEIJING－As a new channel for foreign trade, cross-border e-commerce is injecting fresh impetus into China-Africa trade, bringing popularity to more and more African commodities in the Chinese market.

In the first half of the year, trade volume between China and Africa increased 16.6 percent to $137.4 billion, among which China's imports from African countries hit $60.6 billion, rising 19.1 percent year-on-year, said the Ministry of Commerce.

As Africa's largest trading partner for more than 10 consecutive years, China is striving to expand its e-commerce cooperation with the continent, opening a new channel for African products to tap the Chinese market.

An online shopping festival held in China from April 28 to May 12 featured more than 200 varieties of goods from over 20 African countries. Through a series of live-streaming events, Ethiopian coffee, Kenyan black tea and South African wine found an easy way to be purchased by Chinese consumers.

Ambassadors from African countries also participated in the live-streaming activities. James Kimonyo, Rwanda's ambassador to China, sold hundreds of packets of coffee right after the promotional activity started.

China and Rwanda have signed a memorandum of understanding on e-commerce cooperation, helping high-quality Rwandan products such as coffee, chili sauce and tea enter China through various e-commerce platforms.

The digital economy is the key to Africa's post-COVID recovery, and China is helping African countries like Rwanda to embrace digital opportunities, said Yao Guimei, a professor of African studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Kilimall, an e-commerce platform operating in East Africa with nearly 1,000 vendors, has created about 10,000 jobs for locals, said Lu Xiaoyong, the company's marketing manager.

In 2019, the company launched KiliSelect, an e-commerce platform selling African products to China.

Silas Musyoka, manager of marketplace operations at Kilimall, said Africa-China cooperation in the e-commerce sector has huge potential. "There is so much more that we can do and so much more that we can gain," Musyoka said.

The market scale of e-commerce in Africa will reach $34.7 billion by 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 17.1 percent, according to internet statistics company Statista.

Lu noted that, with the growing smartphone penetration rate in Africa and the increasingly mature mobile payment environment, it is expected that there will be an upsurge in mobile internet business in Africa by 2025.

Xinhua