The leader of a United Nations team that visited Ghana recently noted his pleasure, and surprise, at finding the small West African nation already has a law on the books regarding cybercrimes, something many larger nations do not yet have.
Senegalese-born Abdoulaye, Ndiaye led the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) group visiting Ghana to offer advice on electronic-commerce development. Ndiaye, a researcher and consultant, issued a report on the visit, noting that Ghana is making strides in IT, but lacks a consolidated effort to implement e-commerce.
The aim of the UNECA visit is to offer useful advice on how Ghana can get e-commerce more fully off the ground. Although the country has no national enabling policy for e-commerce and also lacks a regulatory framework, it does have some well-established electronic businesses.
Among the key players that the UNECA team identified are team start-ups like Ghana Mall, Bestbuy Ghana, and epesewa. The start-ups are gaining considerable experience in e-commerce, according to Cletus Nji, an international consultant working on projects in Ghana.
UNECA, however, found that no reliable payment method for e-commerce has been adopted. The Abdoulaye team encouraged dialogue between banking, corporate, Central Bank of Ghana and local credit and debit companies — Sika Card and Visa Horizon Card.
Another issue is Ghana’s lack of precise taxation laws, something the government has reportedly said it will deal with.
