What East Africans Can Expect from the EAC e-Commerce Strategy
26th June, 2025
The East African Community (EAC) has embraced a bold vision for the region’s digital future through the adoption of the EAC E-Commerce Strategy. Designed to drive inclusive economic growth, the Strategy is a driver for transformation, opening up opportunities for small businesses, empowering marginalised groups, and strengthening regional integration through a thriving digital marketplace.
At its heart, the Strategy aims to make it easier, safer, and more profitable for East Africans to trade online. Built on extensive regional assessments, consultations, and alignment with global best practices, the Strategy is a game-changer in positioning East Africa as a competitive digital economy.
Why It Matters
Across the region, e-commerce holds immense promise for innovation, job creation, and expanded market access. Yet many East Africans, especially women, youth, and rural entrepreneurs, continue to face major barriers such as inadequate digital infrastructure, limited digital skills, costly payment systems, and low consumer trust in online transactions.
The EAC e-Commerce Strategy is the region’s comprehensive roadmap to overcome these hurdles. By focusing on regional integration and harmonisation, it seeks to unlock the potential of digital trade to benefit every citizen, business, and government in the bloc.
A Strategy Built for Action
The EAC e-Commerce Strategy is anchored on six (6) interconnected pillars that collectively provide a robust framework for enabling secure, inclusive, and scalable digital trade across the region. Each pillar addresses a key component of the digital commerce ecosystem, ensuring that businesses, governments, and citizens can participate fully and confidently in the digital economy. The pillars are highlighted below:
- Enabling Legal and Regulatory Environment
This pillar focuses on creating a harmonised and future-proof legal framework across Partner States. It includes laws on electronic transactions, data protection, cybercrime, consumer protection, digital signatures, and taxation. By aligning regulations regionally, it ensures a level playing field, boosts investor confidence, and fosters trust among consumers and traders. Institutions will also be strengthened to enforce these laws effectively and promote cross-border digital trade. - Improved Trade Facilitation and Logistics
Recognising the importance of efficient movement of goods, this pillar aims to streamline customs procedures, modernise logistics systems, and digitise border operations. It supports the implementation of digital inspections, pre-arrival clearance, and interlinkages between e-commerce platforms and customs systems. These interventions will significantly reduce delivery delays and costs, especially for small packages that dominate online transactions. - Enhanced Market Access Conditions
To unlock new markets for East African businesses, this pillar promotes inclusivity and regional competitiveness. It emphasises the development of e-marketplaces for underrepresented groups, ensures reliable ICT infrastructure, and reduces the cost of doing business online. Special attention is given to youth, women, rural traders, and persons with disabilities, ensuring they are not left behind in the digital transition. - Human Resource Development
Skills are the currency of the digital economy. This pillar seeks to build human capacity across the ecosystem, from consumers and small business owners to government officials and law enforcement agencies. It supports initiatives in digital literacy, online marketing, cybersecurity, payment systems, and logistics management. The goal is to ensure East Africans have the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in the digital marketplace. - Enabling E-Commerce Auxiliary Environment
A strong supporting ecosystem is essential for sustainable e-commerce growth. This pillar covers ICT infrastructure, digital payment interoperability, secure online identity systems, postal and courier networks, and data hosting facilities. It addresses challenges such as poor last-mile delivery, high mobile money transaction costs, and a lack of affordable hosting options for online businesses. Improving auxiliary services enhances the overall functionality of the digital trade environment. - Institutional Development
Successful implementation of the Strategy requires coordinated oversight and governance. This final pillar focuses on strengthening institutional capacities at both the regional and national levels. It promotes inter-agency collaboration, public-private dialogue, and a shared monitoring framework. Through these efforts, Partner States will be better equipped to coordinate actions, mobilise resources, and track progress in real time.
Real Benefits for Real People
The EAC e-Commerce Strategy is not just about systems and policies, it is about transforming everyday lives across the region.
- For Small Businesses: Entrepreneurs can now expand regionally without the burden of setting up physical shops in every country. With harmonised laws and logistics, selling across borders becomes cost-effective and efficient.
- For Women and Youth: Digital platforms will offer training, financing options, and visibility for women-led ventures and youth innovators, opening up new income streams and networks.
- For Consumers: A more competitive digital market means more choices, better quality, and affordable pricing, whether buying electronics, school supplies, or farm inputs.
- For Governments: A formalised e-commerce sector enhances tax collection, increases transparency, and helps bring informal traders into the mainstream economy.
- For Rural Communities: Improved digital access and logistics infrastructure will bridge the urban-rural divide, enabling farmers and artisans to connect directly with markets and services.
EARDIP: Driving Implementation on the Ground
The Eastern Africa Regional Digital Integration Project (EARDIP) is set to play a pivotal role in supporting the implementation of the EAC e-Commerce Strategy by addressing the core enablers of a thriving digital economy. Anchored on the EAC’s broader digital integration vision, EARDIP is designed to support both the development of digital infrastructure and institutional capabilities needed to operationalise the Strategy across the region.
In the development of a regional online market, EARDIP has identified four (4) priority areas that align directly with the EAC e-Commerce Strategy. The project is set to support the development and adoption of unified regional laws governing digital trade and e-commerce. This harmonisation will ensure consistency in digital transaction policies across Partner States. To simplify and streamline digital trade across the region, EARDIP is in the process of establishing comprehensive frameworks to address key enablers such as mutual recognition of e-signatures, digital documentation, online consumer rights, and fair platform governance.
To further accelerate digital trade, EARDIP is supporting Partner States in enhancing the interoperability of regional payment systems, allowing businesses and consumers to complete secure, low-cost cross-border transactions with ease. This directly supports one of the Strategy’s key goals: lowering transaction costs and expanding access to mobile and digital financial services.
Finally, a digitally skilled workforce and empowered institutions are key in East Africa’s digital trade transformation. In this regard, EARDIP will provide targeted training and technical assistance to policy-makers, regulators, and digital entrepreneurs, equipping them with the skills and tools required to implement, govern, and scale e-commerce systems effectively, ensuring long-term sustainability of e-commerce reforms
At the infrastructure level, EARDIP is investing in the development of high-speed, cross-border broadband connectivity, ensuring that reliable digital access reaches even remote areas. This robust digital backbone is essential for facilitating seamless online transactions and unlocking new regional markets.
Equally critical is cybersecurity and data protection. EARDIP is supporting Partner States in strengthening legal and technical frameworks to secure digital platforms, protect user data, and build trust in e-commerce systems, an essential foundation for consumer confidence and business growth.
Through these strategic interventions, EARDIP is not only supporting implementation, it is enabling transformation. By bridging digital divides, enhancing trust, and equipping institutions, EARDIP is laying the foundation for a dynamic, inclusive, and integrated East African digital economy.
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