As the development speed of e-Commerce across nations of the world doubles, a public-private dialogue (PPD) report on, E-Commerce and Digital Economy in Nigeria has called for a standard national e-Commerce policy and strategy to guide the stability of the sector in the country.
Experts that reviewed the industry in Nigeria recently called for private sector driven policy advocacy and capacity building with inputs from the government considering the fact that majority of sales and deals on e-Commerce platforms are domestic with instances of international colorations.
The PPD report titled, ‘E-Commerce and Digital Industrialisation: Any Symbiosis?’ clearly observed that even though several firms have taken up the business, there is yet no clear e-commerce-specific legislation or bye-laws that can protect customers and even the operators.
They agreed further on the need to adopt some existing legislation and international data localisation policy upon critical modifications to fit Nigeria’s operator-customer relations.
The report averred that “Notwithstanding, Nigeria is committed to undertake regulatory reforms, skill development, e-commerce ecosystem assessment and readiness, trade logistics, infrastructure and ICT services to enable our Micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to compete and integrate into the regional and global value chains. This is with a view to collectively defining the appropriate approach to adopt both from a trade facilitation and enforcement perspectives.”
Besides, the PPD report raised an issue of national importance with a call on the government to introduce clear E-commerce Moratorium and threshold to enhance revenue and taxation on digital materials and contents.
Currently, Nigeria has a number of leading e-Commerce operators including Jumia, Konga, Jiji, and others even as many that rushed into the market earlier and rushed out including Effritin.com.
The experts also agreed that time has come to put legislations that will compel operators to protect both dispatch officials from risks of being killed or attacked on deliveries and make sure that buying customers get exactly the standard and quality of what they bought.
In line with the need for security of workers and customers within the value chain of the sector, stakeholders therefore called on the Federal Government to mainstream digital economy agenda into the Economic Growth and Recovery Plans (ERGP) for stability of the sector and customer satisfaction.
