Electronic trade rekindling sales for African businesses during COVID-19

The Alibaba Business Group convened a livestream meeting on 14 May 2020 to promote small-scale world brands on its Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). The eWTP, which is an initiative that fosters business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, was recognised by the G20 and first launched in China, Malaysia, Belgium, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. ‘We want to support SMEs worldwide to recover from the outbreak, resume production and secure orders in their times of need. Through today’s livestream, we look forward to reopening global trade, starting with helping businesses reopen,’ said Alibaba Group Director and Executive Chairman of Ant Group Eric Jing. Gorilla’s Coffee is an example of a slack Rwandan African business, whose supply chains to hotels and cafes were broken during COVID-19 crisis and boomed after joining the platform, outreaching customers in China. This comes in line with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) efforts to bring African products with comparative advantage to the platform in response to COVID-19 crisis.