The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has called for capacity building and the development of the required skills set to harness the full potential of the E-Commerce Ecosystem.

The call was made at the National E-Commerce Forum and Exhibition organized by GIZ in collaboration with National Information Technology Agency and the e-Commerce Association of Ghana.

Speaking at the forum, the Senior National Coordinator of the Digital Transformation Center at GIZ, Emmanuel Mumuni, said if Ghana is able to develop the expertise and right set skills for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), these businesses can expand their operations and increase revenue streams with e-Commerce.

“E-Commerce is very technical area and for you to fully participate in it, you need the right skills to practice. Even though there are lots of SMEs trying e-Commerce, they do not have the requisite skills to excel in it. So one of the things the project is doing is to build the capacity of SMEs so that they can take advantage of e-commerce as a revenue channel to build new revenue streams for themselves and to grow their businesses”, he noted.

He also added that the right collaboration between stakeholders will create an enabling ecosystem which will be beneficial to SMEs 

Speaking on the government’s contribution in building a solid ecosystem, the Head of Technical Services at the National Information Technology Agency (NITA), Solomon Richardson, said government in collaboration with the private sector is putting up the needed infrastructure and resources which will aid the smooth running of the country’s digital transformation agenda.

“Government is pushing hard to make sure that every part of the country is covered in terms of internet connectivity. Government is also making the needed investment in remote areas so that all citizens are covered. In terms of infrastructure, Ghana is promoting shared infrastructure with more data centers. Currently, the country has about six data centers and is working hard to add more. Government is promoting cloud infrastructure to allow e-service providers with the necessary infrastructure to operate”, he mentioned.

The programme, which is meant to whip up conversations to inform policy and create an E-Commerce ecosystem which will inure to the benefits of small and medium businesses in Africa will begin in Ghana with similar forums in Kenya and Rwanda. Also present at the event was SMEs who exhibited their products and interacted with stakeholders.