‘Buy East Africa’ E-commerce Platform to ease inter-trade between women and youth entrepreneurs in EAC

Elias Hakizimana Jul 9, 2022Jul 9, 2022 0 Comments

By The Inspirer writer.

Afro Ark of Rwanda and the Resilience Organization of South Sudan have jointly developed a digital platform called ‘Buy East Africa’ under the support of German Development Cooperation with the EAC through the Incubator for Integration and Development in East Africa (IIDEA).

Buy East Africa is an E-Commerce platform connecting women and youth entrepreneurs in agribusiness between Rwanda and South Sudan.

“Youth and women entrepreneurs in both Rwanda and South Sudan will identify a selection of quality agro-based products to be listed on the Buy East Africa E-Commerce platform and widen their choices to order agricultural products. Customers will be able to compare products and prices and make choices according to their needs and financial means,” explains Patience Iribagiza, Executive Director of Afro Ark.

**Patience Iribagiza, Executive Director of Afro Ark, is one of the youth and women led organization supported by the GIZ-EAC Programme**

“The transaction process will be much quicker as the buyer and the seller are in constant contact, which cuts down on the time the women and youth entrepreneurs take moving from place to place to source the products they need”, Iribagiza adds.

“Buy East Africa E-commerce Platform for agribusiness has been launched in Rwanda and South Sudan and well designed to facilitate a trustable market of quality-assured products, market price information through extensive product descriptions, reviews by customers, content moderation, and producer Identity verification and pricing. Besides, the project has conducted Radio and TV adverts that have reached many youth and women entrepreneurs in both Rwanda and South Sudan to access either or both channels for them to check on the Buy East Africa E-commerce platform,” Iribagiza notes.

The platform will drastically improve the volume of trade between women and youth entrepreneurs involved in agribusiness between Rwanda and South Sudan.

She says that the e-commerce platform responds to the socio-economic needs of youth and women entrepreneurs in both South Sudan and Rwanda and improves their connections to enhance bilateral trade.

“It has the potential to replace the traditional laborious and costly business method involving customers travelling from place to place looking for the products they need,” she says.

Speaking on behalf of GIZ during the launch event, Joyce Kimaro, Senior advisor of IIDEA and Gender says that the project is not only in line with the Regional EAC E-commerce Strategy but also suits the current covid-19 situation which has hindered physical trade.

**Joyce Kimaro, Senior advisor of IIDEA and Gender aT GIZ addressing participants during the launch event of the platform.**

“The purpose is to facilitate women and youth entrepreneurs of Rwanda and South Sudan to engage in bilateral cross border trade through an online platform. We congratulate our Partner Afro Ark together with Resilience Organization of South Sudan for successfully developing this platform. We are grateful to be part of the launch of the Buy East Africa E-commerce platform. We urge these two organizations to implement, evaluate and scale this programme to other EAC partners at the right time.” Kimaro says.

“As GIZ, we are confident that with the current COVID-19 pandemic impacting social and economic life of East Africans, e-Commerce platform becomes the suited measures for companies conducting their business. We are sure that e-commerce will offer many benefits to the women and youth engaged in businesses who are brave enough to venture online with low startup and costs, increase products range, generate more sales, wider customer base, and lower transaction costs. E-commerce will not only achieve these goals but also offer customers around the clock, convenient service, that can boost productivity,” she says.

She urges all the women and youth engaged in Agri-business in Rwanda and South Sudan to maximize the use of this platform by creating more jobs, improving their incomes and investing in other productive sectors.