Digital commerce in Ghana: opportunities focused on innovation for micro and small enterprises (MSEs)
Three key opportunity areas in which digital commerce innovations can contribute to the prosperity of MSEs
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has spelled doom for many businesses, e-commerce market growth could be considered among the pandemic’s few bright spots. A need to purchase from home, combined with government support for digital payments, particularly in Africa (e.g., Kenya, Rwanda, Ghana), has fueled online purchasing around the world. Even as giants like Amazon and Jumia have prospered, the growth in online retail and digital commerce more broadly has largely excluded micro and small enterprises (MSEs), most of which operate offline and therefore have been hardest hit by the impact of the pandemic.
The Catalyst Fund Inclusive Digital Commerce program was created in Ghana to support digital commerce companies in developing solutions that can better reach, serve, and benefit MSEs. As a first step, we conducted extensive consultations and research to better understand the current usage of digital commerce by MSEs. Based on this research we have zeroed in on three key opportunity areas in which inclusive digital commerce innovations can meaningfully contribute to the prosperity of MSEs, as outlined in this brief:
- Niche marketplaces
- MSE solution stack
- Tech-enabled logistics
