GSMA Points to the Importance of Social Commerce in Africa
Africa has several retail e-platforms which can handle logistics and simplify payment, but those are not very popular, finds a recent survey by the GSMA, the association of mobile-phone operators.…
Read MoreAfrican Sea-ports Flourish
Elsewhere the news is much more cheerful. The opening of Nigeria’s ‘game-changing’ billion-dollar deep-water seaport in Lekki, in early 2023, together with other ongoing and upcoming projects around the continent reflects…
Read MoreTrouble at SA’s State Enterprises Impacts Ecommerce.
During November, the news started to leak out that the SA Post Office was in dire straights with over R19bn ($1bn) in debts and over 1,100 creditors. The R2.5bn bail…
Read MoreCross-border Payments and update on the SA Situation
The Pan-African Payments and Settlements Service (PAPSS) and EFA organised a session at the UNCTAD eWeek. We pointed out that cross-border ecommerce requires payment mechanisms to ensure that purchases are…
Read MoreNews From Africa
News from the AfCFTA The Protocol calling on member states to promote women and the youth has been adopted, which is unsurprising as it was not controversial, but we understand…
Read MoreThe Digital Divide Remains of Concern
New statistics from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) suggest that while internet connectivity and usage is on the rise, it is barely making a dent in the digital divide as…
Read MoreBig Tech News
The opening salvo in the ongoing crusade against Big Tech—the Justice Department’s (DoJ) landmark antitrust case against Google (like United States v. Microsoft before it)—will be remembered as a defining…
Read MoreThe World Trade Organisation’s Moratorium on Customs Duties Applied to Electronic Transmissions
Readers will recall that this issue has appeared on a regular basis in this Newsletter. The agreement must be confirmed every 2 years and comes up for renewal at WTO’s 13th…
Read MoreMiscellaneous
The EU Proposes Regulation to Keep Artificial Intelligence Within Control Last month we reported on the bilateral Bletchley Park meeting on AI. We noted that the EU wanted to introduce…
Read MoreReform to Give the WTO More Powers to Prevent Unfair Subsidies
The German Economic Institute (IW) has called on the EU to join forces with African countries to reform the World Trade Organization’s subsidy rules as a way to counter Chinese…
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