Can e-commerce facilitate the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa?

Recent socioeconomic progress in Africa has occurred in the context of ubiquitous information and communications technologies (ICTs). The mobile subscription penetration reached 63 per cent in 2013 and more than 16 per cent of the population is now using the Internet.1 Policymakers and African development partners foresee a lot of possibilities in the opportunities made available by ICTs in the continent’s effort to stem widespread poverty and in the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in that effort. In this context, over the last decade, African countries placed high priority on the development and implementation of national ICT policies and plans. By the end of 2011, some 48 countries had national ICT policies in place, with another four in the process of developing them.