E-commerce in Ghana

E-commerce

Internet access

The number of Internet users rose to 10.11 million in Ghana, accounting for 35% of the total population, according to latest estimates from Hootsuite. This rate puts Ghana below the regional and African average despite rapidly growing penetration rates (27% year-on-year growth in January 2018). As in the rest of Africa, Internet access is mostly mobile with 9.28 active mobile Internet users and broadband subscriptions are rather low. 75% of the web traffic comes from mobile phones (7% year-on-year change) against 22% for laptops & desktops (-13% year-on-year change) and 3% for tablet devices.

E-commerce market

Ghana has a more sophisticated e-commerce market than most other nations in West Africa; however, it is still in an early development stage. The introduction of special Visa and MasterCard services has enhanced business practices, allowing many Ghanaian companies and individuals to carry out online financial transactions. Furthermore, the Ghanaian government introduced a regulation that allowed telecommunication companies to apply for a licence from the Central Bank rather than asking them to partner with a commercial bank, enabling more mobile payments. Ghana concluded preliminary discussions with PayPal last year, with the first mobile money payments interoperability system introduced in May 2018. The country is expected to be fully PayPal compliant by 2020, which could potentially boost e-commerce. Nevertheless, only 13% of Ghanaians receive or make mobile payments (Hootsuite Survey) at the moment, putting the country below the African average.
The Pan-African online platform Jumia is active in the Ghanaian market whereas two local firms, Zoobashop and Tonaton.com are also among leading online shopping websites.