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Mauritius, South Africa and Tunisia are Africa’s Top Three B2C E-commerce Markets

According to UNCTAD’s Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index, Mauritius remains by far the most prepared country for e-commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa. The index scores 152 nations on their readiness for online shopping, worth an estimated $4.4 trillion globally in 2018, up 7% from the previous year. Countries are scored on access to secure internet servers, reliability of postal services and infrastructure, and the portion of their population that uses the internet and has an account with a financial institution or mobile money services provider. Based on the survey, Mauritius retained the highest score in sub-Saharan Africa. In contrast, the four largest increases in index scores were recorded in developing countries – Algeria, Brazil, Ghana and Lao People’s Democratic Republic. Their scores surged by at least five points, largely due to significant improvements in postal reliability.