African countries seem to be jointly working together to create their own continental ‘eBay’ and ‘Amazon’ portals. But will the initiative work?
All the same, efforts to that effect have started in Arusha, Tanzania’s Northern City which is the capital of Pan African Postal Union (PAPU).
From Tanzania, the various Postal corporations in Africa will jointly hatch own continental online trading platforms and related digital applications to support them.
The proposed African E-Commerce portal targets to boost modern digital transactions on the continent as well as promoting what each of the Pan African Postal Union member states have to offer to the world.
The proposed African own versions of ‘eBay,’ Ali Baba or Amazon portals was among the issues that came up during the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) Council Ordinary Session Meeting that took place in Arusha from 11th to 12th June 2024.
Tanzanian Chief Postmaster, Dr. Maharage Chande said they have reached the decision after realizing that postal corporations on the continent have a better chance of surviving the digital world by focusing more on business than in just offering delivery and communication services.
“We have established a special digital laboratory at the PAPU Headquarters in Arusha where special programs and coding of different ecommerce applications will be realized towards coming up with the joint digital trading platform for African countries,” stated the Tanzania Post Master.
On the other hand the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has donated 30 computer sets to the new PAPU digital laboratory where the various applications will be produced to enable people from all walks of life make use of the digital services to make profitable transactions across the continent and as far as overseas.
“Many of the online trading platforms seem to be biased towards products coming from western and developed countries; we are yet to have dedicated e-commerce outlets that cater for goods produced in Africa, especially agricultural produce,” pointed out Chande.
The Pan African Postal Union Secretary General, Dr Sifundo Moyo said the administrative council meeting sessions have been discussing challenges and opportunities facing the postal sector on the continent and how local corporations should brace to address or benefit from them.
“We want to see concrete actions that will be followed by actions, coming from our operators in terms of how they are going to innovate and bring new products that are on digital platforms,” said Dr Moyo.
The PAPU official said cross border trade between African countries will become more pronounced through digital transactions and enable small and medium enterprises on the continent to benefit from international trading opportunities.
Deputy Minister of Information and Information Technological who graced the meeting said Tanzania will continue to promote technological usage in improving services, including deployment of artificial intelligence and robots.