Smart Africa Alliance receives a $1.5 million grant from the African Development Fund to improve the policy environment for digital trade and e-commerce in Africa.
The African Development Bank Group’s Board of Directors (www.AfDB.com) has approved a $1.5 million grant to analyze policy gaps in the digital trade and e-commerce ecosystems in ten African countries.
The monies will be channeled through the African Development Fund, the Bank’s concessional window, to the Smart Africa Alliance, a group of 32 African governments, international organizations, and multinational firms working to create a single digital market in Africa by 2030.
“This project is both urgent and necessary,” said Nicholas Williams, the Bank’s Division Manager for ICT Operations. To achieve a unified digital market by 2030, the continent’s efforts should be focused on harmonizing and creating a cohesive policy environment for intra-continental commerce. The Bank is excited to collaborate with the Smart Africa Alliance to pursue critical policy goals that will help Africa’s digital growth.”
The policy environment in ten countries will be studied: Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Uganda, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, The Republic of Congo, S. Tomé and Prncipe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Smart Africa will interact with public and private sector stakeholders to create an online training program that will directly benefit 600 stakeholders (government officials, small and medium businesses, and private sector mobile network operators) and indirectly benefits another 2,500.
“One of the fundamental obstacles impeding the continent from preparing for Africa’s brave new future is the inability to undertake cross-border payments for products and services owing to a lack of solutions and debilitating rules,” said Lacina Koné, CEO of Smart Africa. Our collaboration with the African Development Bank is critical in fostering an environment conducive to the advancement of e-payments, and the digital economy is critical to Africa’s revival.”
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