More than half of businesses registered on e-commerce platform Jumia in Kenya are owned by female entrepreneurs, a new report has found, highlighting the pivotal role e-commerce plays in boosting their participation in business.
The latest report on the digital economy published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) indicates that emerging online platforms offer new ways to overcome traditional gender barriers to trade such as lack of access to finance, costs associated with distance, and entry into male-dominated sectors and distribution networks.
However, the opportunities for development gains from e-commerce must be viewed against a backdrop of very uneven levels of digital readiness, UNCTAD wrote.
“The future trajectories and the ability of developing and least developed countries to unleash the potential of e-commerce for all depend on policy actions that address the root causes of the digital divide.”
Furthermore, UNCTAD notes that it is collaborating with governments around the world as well as with members of the “eCommerce for All” initiative to foster enabling environments to better harness e-commerce for development and help businesses of all sizes tap into national and international markets and supply chains, reduce trade costs and enhance efficiency through competition.
A previous report by the International Finance Corporation had suggested that closing gender gaps in the sector could add nearly $15 billion (Sh1.9 trillion) to the value of Africa’s e-commerce industry between 2025 and 2030, which it said would put billions of dollars in the hands of female entrepreneurs.
The IFC report pointed to the particular challenges that women seeking to enter the e-commerce business must face, noting that, for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, sales of women-owned businesses fell by 39% while sales of men-owned businesses increased by 28%.
E-commerce companies can reverse this trend by targeting women-owned businesses for training, increasing women’s participation in high-value sectors such as electronics, and encouraging better use of emerging fintech offerings, which women currently use at a much lower rate than men, according to the IFC report.