Africa has great advantages for the development of e-commerce, but behind these advantages, there are also very difficult objective obstacles.
(I) Backward infrastructure
It is a well-known fact that Africa’s infrastructure is weak. Although it is improving, it is still the main bottleneck for Africa’s development. Imperfect infrastructure makes it difficult to build a logistics supply chain, which fundamentally restricts the development of local e-commerce and is also the most important reason for the poor timeliness of logistics in Africa.
(II) Political turmoil and people’s lack of trust
Due to the long-term influence of war, the political situation in most countries in Africa is very unstable. Many African people find it difficult to establish a sense of trust in online shopping that is invisible and intangible. Rich people with consumption power will also be concerned about security issues and are unwilling to fill in real information. The poor are more worried about being deceived, so they resist mobile payments without physical objects and prefer cash on delivery.
(III) Low education level
The education level in most African countries is very backward, the people have a low level of education, and many people are illiterate. For example, the basic education coverage rate of Nigerian youth is less than 20%. The low level of education has increased the operating costs and labor training costs of e-commerce to a certain extent.
(IV) High cost of broadband
In Africa, the cost of mobile Internet broadband is very high. In some African countries, the monthly Internet access fee of 256KB per second is as high as US$100, while in European countries such as France, the monthly Internet access fee of 20MB per second is only US$40.