NEPC Targets $2.7trn African Market Through e-commerce

The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) is targeting the $2.7 trillion African market through the instrumentality of e-commerce.

Speaking at the launch of Agogo Africa supported by NEPC and African Union on Tuesday in Abuja, the Chief Executive Officer, NEPC, Dr Ezra Yakusak, said e-commerce had become a big industry, citing a report by an online platform, ecommercedb.com, which said that Nigeria was ranked 35th largest market for e-commerce globally and recorded a yearly growth of 42 per cent.

The report, according to him, also noted that 26 per cent of Nigerians bought products online as at 2020.

He said e-commerce was one of the fastest growing industries in the global economy, noting that the estimated yearly growth was put at 23 per cent and the industry was projected to hit $27 trillion by the end of this decade.

“On e-commerce revenue in Nigeria, fashion sector alone accounts for 37 per cent. We at the Nigerian Export Promotion Council are committed to growing the national economy from other sources outside crude oil,” he said.

He noted that the NEPC was willing to render support to individuals and organisations like Agogo Africa that presented viable options that would enhance market access for Nigeria goods and services of various sectors.

“This forms the basis of our partnership with Agogo Africa to launch a credible platform to onboard fashion and related sector for trading.”

He said economic distractions that came up after the COVID-19 pandemic and the present war in the Eastern Europe between Russia and Ukraine had given rise to the astronomical growth of e-commerce platforms globally, ensuring uninterrupted movement of goods and services despite the crisis.

“Hence the Council cannot afford to lay back on e-commerce drive.’

A representative of the African Union, Mrs Ron Osman Omar, said Nigeria must export its products and capture the African market.

“We need to export; we are a continent of 1.2bn people, and we have enough people to sell to,” she said.

She noted that the world wanted to have what Africans produced, stressing that Nigeria and other parts of the continent must skill its youths to create high-quality products.