The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) says availability of smart phones, increasing broadband penetration, the social media and safe e-payment systems were responsible for the growth of e-Commerce in Nigeria.
Mr Kasim Sodangi, the National Coordinator, Office for Nigeria Content Development in ICT (ONC), a NITDA subsidiary, said this at the 2020 e-Commerce and Marketing Online Seminar for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Abuja on Wednesday.
Sodangi said that the e-Commerce has been projected to have a steady annual growth of 14 per cent in Nigeria.
He said that a report by McKinsey, a US-based company on business advisory, revealed that e-commerce opportunities that existed in Nigeria were mostly retail components, estimated at 12 billion dollars and were projected to reach about 75billion dollars by 2025.
“The e-Commerce in Nigeria is determined by the population which is about 200million with 132million of them using the internet.
“This number is likely to increase with internet penetration which is expected to be at 65.2 per cent by 2025,” he said.
The coordinator said that 62 per cent of Nigerians under the age 24 have basic literacy and willing to acquire digital skills.
“There are about 300,000 online purchases daily compared to the previous 30,000 witnessed in previous years,” he said.
He said that Nigerians aged between 25 and 35 were most active buyers in e-commerce, while 69 per cent of the activities were done on mobile devices.
“Going by trends, social media may become the most dominating form of e-commerce and very important in our journey to deepen e-commerce in Nigeria,” he said.
Mr Segun Awolowo, Executive Director, Nigeria Export Promotion Council, said that the e-commerce business in Nigeria experienced a surge with the advent of COVID- 19 pandemic
