On Wednesday, April 29 at 12:30 pm, Jesse Weltevreden, Lecturer in Digital Commerce at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, together with Dorothy Tembo and James Howe from the International Trade Centre (ITC), is hosting this webinar about a research on online platforms in Africa during UNCTAD’s e-Week. The webinar will launch an interactive dashboard with facts and figures on online platforms in 58 African countries: The Africa Marketplace Explorer. Jesse Weltevreden will share the key findings of the research during the webinar, after which 3 experts will discuss the implications of the research for entrepreneurs in Africa.

Speakers during the seminar
Mrs. Dorothy Tembo, Executive Director ad interim, International Trade Centre, opening remarks
Dr. Jesse Weltevreden of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam/Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (main presenter)
Mr. Chris Folayan, Founder and CEO, Mall for Africa
Mr. Demilade Oluwasina, E-commerce and Digital Economy Programmes Lead, African Leadership University

Register here for the seminar

The research project
E-commerce in Africa is expected to be a source of accelerated economic growth providing opportunities for small and large businesses. It is estimated that by 2022, the size of the e-commerce market in Africa will be around 22 billion, but data on local online platforms is difficult to obtain or incomplete. Therefore, the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the Centre for Market Insights of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam joined forces and conducted a broad inventory of the state of online platforms in Africa. More than 630 online platforms active in Africa were mapped and (58) other African countries were compared. The results of the study answer questions such as:

• What is the relative level of adoption of online platforms by African countries?
• Which online platforms in Africa are successful and why?
• Which online platforms are of interest to small and medium-sized African enterprises

Researchers Jesse Weltevreden, Esther Mooiman and Selmar Meents of the Centre for Market Insights of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, conducted this research together with Sara Lone of TableTop Research.

Launching Africa Marketplace Explorer
During the seminar The Africa Marketplace Explorer will be launched, an interactive dashboard where the results of the research are compiled and where interested parties can interactively gain knowledge about the online platforms landscape in 58 African countries. Facts and figures on more than 630 African online platforms are presented visually. The dashboard will be available from 2:00 p.m. next Wednesday, April 29, on this page.

Next seminar:
A second webinar will follow later in which the research report belonging to the study will be presented. More information about this follow-up seminar will follow later, keep an eye on our website, Linkedin and Twitter.