African businesses are increasingly using ecommerce to sell their goods and services and access vendors online, including across borders. In the process, they benefit from access to and the analysis of data on their customers, transactions, competitors, and markets to improve their marketing, offerings, and operations, identify high-potential customers and best-selling product categories, and anticipate demand spikes and competitors’ moves. 

 

Firms’ access to data and data analytics capabilities is critical for the development of Africa’s ecommerce sector. It is also important for the digital transformation of traditional companies in Africa’s construction, healthcare, manufacturing, mining, farming, and multiple other sectors. 

 

In light of the importance of data for African MSMEs, the data privacy and transfer regimes that African countries establish today will have far-reaching implications for African firms that engage in ecommerce. They also impact the prospects of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to promote MSME ecommerce.

 

This series seeks to support African governments in identifying pro-MSME ecommerce data privacy and transfer regimes, by examining how African firms are using data, how they benefit from data, and what they view as the optimal regulatory regimes to be able to use and secure data.