Stories

Kenya women entrepreneurs go global during Africa e-Commerce Week

14 December 2018
ITC News
ITC and eBay help connect 50 women-owned business connect to global marketplace as part of SheTrades initiative

Digital platforms are playing an increasing role in ensuring greater participation of women in international trade by reducing the number of barriers needed to get goods across borders.

To help women entrepreneurs in developing countries take advantage of such digital opportunities, the International Trade Centre (ITC) is working with eBay, the global e-tailer, on an e-commerce pilot as part of the SheTrades initiative.

In conjunction with the first Africa e-Commerce Week held in Nairobi, Kenya, on 10-14 December, 50 Kenyan women-owned businesses were connected to the global marketplace, following support on setting up their online shops.

To mark the success of getting the women entrepreneurs online another SheTrades partner, DHL Express Kenya, is offering substantial discounts on its global express delivery service on orders made from online shops that are now live.

Readers wishing to place order and receive goods from the vendors listed below before Christmas are requested to place orders by Sunday evening (16 December). The majority of products ship worldwide via DHL Express within five days or less.

Crucial in enabling the women-owned enterprises to go live on eBay was the support of PayPal, the digital payments firm, which has provided training and an international payments solution for the online shops. This allows the Kenyan women entrepreneurs to receive payments from global customers and to withdraw the money to their M-Pesa mobile money accounts.

Watch interviews from the workshop.

Fabian Stächelin, an ITC e-Commerce Adviser, said: ‘Today, global commerce is accessible to businesses of any size and located in any part of the world. Through global online marketplaces such as Etsy, eBay or Amazon it becomes possible to access millions of potential buyers with little upfront cost and very limited investment. A Kenyan entrepreneur just needs four things to get started: a mobile phone, an e-mail address, a debit/credit card and a valid ID. It takes me an afternoon of work with a seller to get their global online shop up and running.’