Online selling window still unopened in Rwanda

While countries such as Kenya and Uganda have picked up the newest business trend of buying and selling online, Rwandan firms predict the country has a long way to go even with the existing access to the best Internet in the region.

Though e-commerce is still growing in southern Africa, Internet sales and social marketing are rather new ideas of doing business in Rwanda and despite the existence of resourceful avenues like e-commerce firms (local and international), Yahoo! Pages such as Kigali Life and business advertisements on Facebook.

As businesses grow in Rwanda, there has been a demand for imported high-end tech gadgets, machinery and general commodities that are not available locally.

This has seen some firms come into the market to provide the services despite initiatives by the Ministry of Commerce and the private sector federations to assist local entrepreneurs to access these goods from outside.

Among the few such firms that operate in Kigali city are QNET Rwanda, NetSys Computers Ltd, Duncun & Duncun, Bitcom Network Services Ltd and BidNetwork.

Education required

“Rwandans have to be educated about this e-business and especially social marketing. It is not easy to convince someone to buy something they cannot see and touch. That is true for most Africans, but with time we hope to make business a new trend of doing business in Rwanda,” said Francis Kamanzi, the Country manager for QNET Rwanda.

In a bid to convince Rwandans to use the Internet for not only reading and sending e-mails but also doing business online, BidNetwork has developed and put online an innovative website built entirely in Kinyarwanda, cyamunara.com.

Other prominent networks that have tried to initiate the online selling is a Yahoo! Group, Kigali Life, where the “Kigali lifers” (KL) have turned social networking into a business centre. The group has more than 10,158 members who post and advertise for free what they want to sell or share, including experiences and job applications.

The government and Korea Telecoms recently entered a public partnership that would help Rwanda get high-speed broadband network and expand its online services capability and in turn help the country meet its targets in the ICT sector.

Some of the small business operators in Kigali say buying and selling goods online is hampered by lack of funds and key players.

But I&M Bank says this is an issue that has been raised by many clients and it plans to start a new credit window for such business plans, adding that by the end of the year the new product will have been launched.

“This is a business trend that we have to study first and see how feasible it can be, but there is hope since it is under consideration,” said Blaise Gasabira, the head of treasury at I&M.

Original Article: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/Rwanda/Business/Online-selling-window-still-unopened-in-Rwanda/-/1433224/2197624/-/kqu6t8/-/index.html