E-Commerce (or lack thereof) in Zambia

Daniel Mpolokoso (daniel@zamnet.zm), Managing Director ZAMNET Communication Systems Limited in Zambia writes, "The Zambian government, through the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade, is showing quite a lot of interest in e-commerce and recently called for a meeting of Industry experts to determine the way forward.

"It became evident quite quickly that without a sound IT Strategy, it was not possible to eliminate all barriers to the rapid development of E-commerce as issues like e-competency and e-capabilities (e.g. access to computers, telephone lines, Internet) needed to be addressed first on a national level. The need for a coordinated approach to IT and E-commerce by all wings of government was also apparent.

Zambia does not have a national IT Strategy in place, though there a several independent efforts underway attempting to put together a form of strategy that may later be adopted as starting point. The lack of a coordinated national effort is a major hindrance to the adoption of E-commerce on a nationwide basis and education of the key decision makers in government is hence paramount.

In the absence of a political driving force to foster the growth of IT and e-commerce in the Zambia, it is hoped that the private sector will spearhead the formulation, adoption and implementation of basic frameworks and in the long pressure government into formalising them.

For a developing country like ours, we face an uphill battle in getting the message across to the key decision makers who have not yet grasped that Information Technology and E-commerce are economic enablers that will provide the business advantage and capability for local companies to compete or even just survive in a global marketplace.