E-commerce Association of Ghana launched

The E-commerce Association of Ghana was launched to set standards and encourage best practices in Ghana’s e-Commerce industry.

The Association includes; stakeholders in the e-commerce, comprising online merchants and marketplaces; payment gateways; Internet Service Providers; and courier companies.

Mr Paul Asinor, the Executive Director of the Association, told the GNA that it would represent interests of both online sellers and buyers alike and educate the market, boost the industry, and tackle bottlenecks such as lack of trust that plague online business in Ghana.

He said the potential of Ghana e-commerce was huge, with a steady rise in the purchase of online goods predicted by Statista, global number one business data platform, with revenue in the market expected to reach 429 million dollars in 2020 alone and 811 million dollars by 2024.

He said the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has given e-Commerce a further boost in patronage.

Mr Asinor said the signing of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area agreement by the AU also placed e-commerce in a pivotal role in the creation of new businesses, jobs, cross border trades and increase in Ghana’s GDP.

He said with that in mind, the Association had a vision to become the foremost national e-Commerce Association in Africa, home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

"The e-Commerce Association of Ghana is a member of the Ecommerce Forum of Africa with its headquarters in South Africa," he added.

Mr Asinor said: “This Association is the answer to calls from participants in our previous e-Commerce exhibitions and conferences, we have finally completed our incorporation and are poised to move Ghana’s e-commerce to another level.”

“Our research shows that there are many classifications of e-commerce players in Ghana. We have the global e-commerce shops, the individual online retailers, the online marketplaces and we do also have a lot of individual Ghanaian startups using social media as their online retail outlets," he said.

The Executive Director said they had membership levels for all the different categories with particular benefits to suit every particular level.

He said the leadership of the Association help startups with business growth, being in charge of their own online shops and educating them of secure digital payment systems.

He said the bigger e-commerce shops are guided into global partnerships and bigger markets using their network of e-commerce Associations.

He called on existing and yet to established businesses to join the Association to move the E-commerce industry.

He expressed the hope that the implementation of their objectives would create additional jobs, increase production and sales of domestic goods and as a result increase the country’s GDP.