The ECA/IDRC Pan-African Initiative on e-Commerce

The African Development Forum Meeting, convened by the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa in October 1999, considered the development of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) in Africa and their contribution to development. One area of concern under discussion was electronic commerce and how it might be harnessed for the development of the continent. To assess and determine the support required for e-commerce, ADF placed special emphasis on: § the need to review the status of e-commerce in Africa, its potential, the likely impact, the barriers to growth.