Through inspiration from the eFounders Fellowship, formed through a collaboration between Alibaba Group and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, many young Africans are investing in technology with a keen focus on e-commerce to address challenges affecting their communities.
The program, launched last year, seeks to train 1,000 entrepreneurs from developing countries, 200 of whom will come from Africa. It is designed to help bridge the digital divide faced by young entrepreneurs in developing countries as well as help them to grasp the opportunities of an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem.
The program consists of sharing firsthand experiences on the transformative impact of e-commerce and technology and follow-up on lessons learned, including a two-week stay at the Alibaba Business School campus.
It is open to entrepreneurs who operate open platforms related to e-commerce, logistics, financial technology, big data or tourism.
Leah Uwihoreye, the CEO of Golden Thoughts Ltd, a Rwanda-based e-commerce company that provides an online platform to local manufacturers and female artisans so they can sell their products, is one of the beneficiaries of the eFounders Fellowship.
Uwihoreye, who participated in the eFounders Fellowship course this year, says the training gave her the confidence to view the challenges she faces in her startup company as opportunities.
She says participants were taken through the operations of Alibaba Group and shown how the company was able to convert challenges into opportunities.
Uwihoreye says they were taught about e-commerce and how to conduct business in general. Lesson topics included how to lead a company, how to work in an ecosystem, how to create outside relationships and how to handle logistics, she says.
“It was a good experience to learn from a company that has been successful in e-commerce. I’m now confident to grow my company,” she says.
Through the eFounders Fellowship, Uwihoreye says, she learned how Jack Ma, the executive chairman of Alibaba Group, conducts business to help people and solve problems in society.
“He inspired me on how to grow my team. How I can start small without quitting and grow big and even make it to the top,” she says.
Uwihoreye says online business is the way to go because it has no boundaries.
“Sometimes people will shop because they know you, while others will not shop … because they don’t know you. Other people don’t meet you because they don’t see you … but once you go online, you meet different customers from different parts of the world,” she says.
Uwihoreye, who is 25, says logistics and payment systems are the key challenges facing e-commerce entrepreneurs in Africa. However, they are in the process of solving the challenge by borrowing from the lessons they learned from Alibaba.
Uwihoreye’s company currently operates in Rwanda, but she plans to expand to the entire East African region next year.
Uwihoreye says the Rwandan government has put in place several policies to support e-commerce. The infrastructure is also good because, in Rwanda, internet coverage is 95 percent for 4G.
She says young Africans have what it takes to convert African challenges into opportunities.
“I believe in young people. We can think, we can go, and we can change how things have been done. With the energy that we have, we need to look at where the challenges are, and not see them as challenges but opportunities to go beyond what we are seeing,” she says.
“As young people, let’s not look at things happening; let’s go out and do something.”
(China Daily European Weekly 11/23/2018 page8)