Hi, I’m Alastair Tempest, CEO of both the Ecommerce Forum Africa and Ecommerce Forum South Africa.
Our aim is to ensure the opportunities from ecommerce are available to everyone in Africa and that the voice of African ecommerce is heard on the continental and world stage.
The main problems ecommerce faces in Africa are:
– lack of telecoms and logistics infrastructure
– lack of funding for business growth
– distrust in ecommerce as a whole (although greatly improved post-COVID)
– tariff and NTB barriers across borders within Africa and across the world
– lack of training and digital skills.
To solve these challenges, we concentrate on representing the ecommerce sector to regulators, creating a central repository of information and research for ecommerce and encouraging training programmes across Africa.
I’m a regular speaker at conferences, representing the voice of African ecommerce, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Trade Organisation (WTO), United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), and the African Union.
I’m a member of the AU Digital Economy Committee. I authored “The Digital Economy and Ecommerce in Africa- Drivers of the African Free Trade Area?” in April 2020, and co-authored with Michelle Chivunga, “Digital Disruption in Africa, Mapping Innovations for the AfCFTA in Post-COVID Times” in March 2021, “Regional Value Chains and Reindustrialisation in Africa: Leveraging the AfCFTA” in October 2021, and Driving Digital Inclusion within the AfCFTA Framework, in November 2022, for the South African Institution of International Affairs (https://saiia.org.za/).
I believe passionately that this is the era for the digital economy and for Africa. The opportunities exist, it is time for the young and women in Africa to recognise their leadership in mobile money, distance learning, fintech, alternative delivery systems, and to accept the challenge to create new businesses and new links across the continent.
I was elected to the Board of Burundi Shop, an ecommerce company. I sit on the IORMA Advisory Board, and am a member of the Comité Denis Diderot on freedom of speech and the dangers of ‘alternative reality’/propaganda.
On behalf of Business Unity SA, I sit on the NEDLAC trade and transport committee, Tesilico, and on the BIAC Digital Policy Committee which inputs into the OECD.
In October 2024 Maria Immanual and I wrote an article for Tralac, “Should the Arts be Constrained by Trade Rules?”
I’m married to Lauretta, daughter of the Rev. Maurice Ngakane and live in Africa.
