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Business Reporter
GLOBAL electronic commerce company, Appletree Digital Commerce, yesterday unveiled its “Taking One Million African Traders Online Movement (TOMATO)” in Zimbabwe, an innovative-driven solution to lack of opportunities facing the youth across Africa.

It is expected to buttress the historic African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Agreement, which came into force last year and has been embraced by several countries including Zimbabwe.

The TOMATO intervention comes at a time when the country and the region at large are grappling with the challenge of employment creation amid concerns over continued sluggish growth, which limits incomes and frustrates standards of living.

While the existing business models struggle to sustain the projected growth in Africa’s young population in terms of job creation, experts are convinced the internet offers a vast number of opportunities, which we can gainfully exploit.

Speaking during the official launch of the campaign, which was hosted virtually yesterday Zimbabwe-born Appletree Digital Commerce managing director, Mr Nigel Daura, who has vast exposure in online business modelling from his stint at Amazon and other platforms while in the diaspora, said digital commerce presents endless possibilities for youth entrepreneurs.

“We came across some alarming statistics, which inspired us to think differently about how we could provide practical solutions to help young Africans to realise their entrepreneurial potential,” he said.

The company estimates that for an SME to setup an e-commerce solution that will actually deliver results it will cost about US$5 000.

Most African SMEs cannot afford that amount and, in that light, Mr Daura said they have set an ambitious goal to raise US$5 billion, within the next 10 years, to allow them to give one million African SME’s US$5 000 grants in the form of e-commerce solutions.

Citing the African Development Bank’s “The High 5 Jobs for Youth in Africa paper”, Mr Daura said Africa is home to about 1,2 billion people while 36 out of the world’s 40 youngest countries, are in Africa.

Of the 1,2 billion people living in Africa an estimated 420 million are youths aged between 15 and 35 with the continent’s youth population projected to double to over 850 million by 2050, he added.

In addition, it is projected that 10-12 million youth enter the workforce each year.

And yet there are only three million formal jobs created annually, which emphasises the need to teach young

Africans to think entrepreneurially and take firm and deliberate steps to support small businesses, said Mr Daura.

“It is to try and plug some of these challenges and offer solutions that TOMATO has come into being today,” said Mr Daura.

The pursuit of the digital commerce dividend has been backed by the World Bank, which indicated in its paper exploring the relationship between broadband and economic growth, that “growth follows the internet”.

For instance, studies reveal that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita growth is 2,7 to 3,9 percent higher after the introduction of broadband.

In developing nations, a 10-percentage point increase in broadband reach, translates to a 1,35 percent increase in GDP, said Appletree citing research finding.

Where it doesn’t create whole new businesses, broadband connectivity can lower costs and increase returns, it added.

In response to this Appletree Digital Commerce has partnered with technical partners that are market leaders in their sectors from around the world to create a digital ecosystem, with which they aim to Take at least one million African traders of a small to medium enterprise capacity online.

As a first step, with the co-operation of Zimbabwean committed and selfless individuals and businesses that support the vision, Appletree says it has put together what it calls “The Africa’s best Jobs Crowdfund prize Draw” whose goal is to raise US$263 million while at the same time creating opportunities for 38 lucky individuals, which will be life changing.

The prizes under this draw includes lavish properties, up to US$250 000 working capital, brand new vehicles, sponsored e-commerce mentorship training of up to US$25 000 stipend and funding to set up own e-commerce business.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with the European Commission have also indicated that the African e-commerce market could benefit by around $14,5 billion if the number of women selling on online platforms achieves parity with men. Through additional training and financial support for female sellers; the sector would expand.

Appletree Digital Commerce is an international company that provides end to end global commerce tools that merchants need to build businesses, accept payments and enable commerce for their users on websites, mobile apps, crowdfunding apps, marketplaces, platforms and fintechs.

With an Africa first strategy and innovative focus, the company enables merchants in over 79 countries to accept, split payments and automate pay-outs online in 100+ currencies and multiple payment methods.