The rise of E-commerce in Nigeria

Without a doubt Nigeria is one of the fastest growing economies on the African continent. Its largest city, Lagos, is rapidly becoming an important economic hub for this developing country and E-commerce and trade sites are playing a big role in this meteoric rise. One day Nigeria will have the largest GDP in Africa and the development of an “Amazon Africa” will surely become an inherent cog in the future economic machine.

The internet is now the fastest and easiest mechanism for profitable trade. People in Nigeria commonly use e-commerce sites to buy and sell second hand products online through free-classifieds sites like this one. On these African online websites you can notice how much costs are cheaper than Occidental markets. For example you can find an Apple iBook Laptop for $90 while on EBay the same computer costs more than $100. This proves that the growing market is evolving into an opportunity for investors. It will also help startup companies survive by being able to purchase cheaper goods.

One of the biggest challenges that E-commerce trade websites face is the actual delivery of goods throughout the continent. Since many of the countries in Africa do not yet have the modern infrastructure to support the efficient shipments of goods, it is pushing investors to look towards other means of delivery systems such as drones to get the purchased goods to the consumers. This will truly make or break some of the new sites emerging in Nigeria and other African countries. The terrain and climate plays a big role in reaching communities detached from major cities such as Lagos. Therefore whichever company finds a way to effectively reach the entire internet consumer community indiscriminately, will take advantage of this rapidly growing market. This type of vehicle for transportation will even help in cities as well. Lagos, for example, does not have the infrastructure to support its 20 million large population that is growing exponentially by the year. It is a nightmare to navigate for drivers and delivery trucks alike, so the race is on for E-commerce sites to find a solution.