Kenya gets ready for e-commerce project

31.03.2017 - Kenya is ready to kick off preparations to launch an e-commerce hub for East Africa, bringing together the region’s national Posts.

This pledge was made by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta during a meeting with UPU Director General Bishar A. Hussein, who was in the country to discuss the Ecom@Africa project with top government authorities.

Hussein briefed the Kenyan president on the UPU-supported project, which aims to assist African Posts to develop e-commerce services within their business portfolio.

The UPU is discussing the Ecom@Africa project with governments and postal operators across Africa, with a view to adopting a model to help Posts develop efficient e-commerce services.

Ecom@Africa has been seen as a lifeline for African Posts, which have been struggling to grow their business, especially given the decline in the letter post segment and other traditional postal services.

The UPU has already held discussions on the implementation of the project with the Posts of Tunisia, South Africa and Côte d’Ivoire. Plans to hold discussions with Morocco and Cameroon are at an advanced stage. The goal is to set up e-commerce hubs in these regions as well.

President Kenyatta assured Hussein that Kenya would put in place a national implementation team that will work in coordination with the UPU to roll out the project. The president directed that the coordination work be kicked off in June this year.

Earlier Hussein had met with officials from the Kenyan Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology led by Cabinet Secretary Joe Mucheru.

Africa , eCommerce