Cross-border Ecommerce

More emphasis is being placed on cross-border ecommerce, and EFSA is delighted to be in support of a conference on 16-17 November https://www.tci-sa.co.za/cross-border-ecommerce/ There will be a discount for EFSA members. The event will hear from the Department of Trade and Industry on the negotiations at the African Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and SARS will unveil its new AEO programme to encourage more cross-border ecommerce. Their programme promotes entrepreneurship in SMEs. We hope to see our readers at the conference, which allows participants to join virtually.

SA has considerable advantages over its competitors on the continent due to its regulatory structures – but this is no reason to sit back and do nothing.

Other countries are actively preparing. For example, take this case from Nigeria where stakeholders in the agri-business sector have expressed concerns that the lack of a standardisation policy may deny Nigeria the much-expected benefits of the AfCFTA. They believe that actual trading among African countries is about to begin in earnest and have warned their government that Nigerian SMEs are unprepared to take advantage of the opportunities because they are still lagging behind global best practices. They are therefore actively lobbying their government to introduce the necessary standards.