By Osssom Raphael
Abuja – The Federal Government is projecting Nigeria’s e-commerce trading to rise to $75bn by 2025 from the current $13bn estimate.
The Federal Government through the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Evelyn Ngige further said that in recent times, e-commerce has grown from 14 per cent in 2019 to 17 per cent in 2020.
Ngige who was represented by the Director, Commodities and Export Department (CED), FMITI, Mr Suleiman Audu at the second national e-commerce roundtable session in Abuja, on Tuesday, said that COVID-19 pandemic has turned global attention to the importance of e-commerce in the conduct of businesses.
The Permanent Secretary noted that e-commerce provides an alternative to sustain businesses and preserve millions of jobs in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.
Ngige said: “This encouraging trend has attracted the entrance of payment providers into e-commerce market.
“In addition, the demand for electronic transactions has attracted payment facilitators from Europe and Asia, who are now investing in Nigerian electronic infrastructure projects.”
Ngige said the event is expected to highlight critical issues that requires the attention of relevant stakeholders in order to develop a strategic framework that will improve the performance of the e-commerce sector in Nigeria.
She noted that in view of the cross-cutting nature of e-commerce, the ministry is open to any form of collaboration that will support the development of the e-commerce ecosystem in Nigeria.
On his part, Director, Commodities and Export Department (CED), FMITI, Mr Suleiman Audu, represented by Mr Laura Irimiya, Deputy Director of Commodities and Export Department (CED), said e-commerce is one of the thriving and promising markets globally with estimated global sales of over $29trn.
He said in spite of the growing opportunities in the e-commerce sub-sector, Nigeria has not been able to fully explore its enormous potentials.
He said this could be largely due to inadequate investment in the e-commerce value chain, coupled with inadequate information on the opportunities in the sector and the inability of the government to provide the required enabling environment.
He said that the event is expected to provide an opportunity for key stakeholders in the e-commerce ecosystem, to interact on matters arising from the previous session and to widen the scope of discussions to cover emerging issues in e-commerce landscape and implications for Nigeria.
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