Mmegi

E-commerce uptake lags in Botswana despite mobile surge

Cellphone user
Cellphone user

A survey of 1.8 million people in Botswana showed that only eight percent buy and sell goods online, a sluggish figure despite a mobile telephone boom in the country.

Local consumers have continued to swim against the global trend of online shopping with other financial datasets showing that consumers continue to prefer to deal in cash for purchases.

A household ICT study conducted by Statistics Botswana depicted disparaging trends in the countries uptake of ecommerce in the period between 2014 and 2024. The data shows that over 142,000 people engaged in online shopping last year, a marginal rise of 3.3 percentage points since 2014, when 4.6 percent of the population used e-commerce.

Editor's Comment
Exercise extra caution!

Unfortunately, petty thieves tend to be more vicious around this time as they also prepare for the festive season. Culturally, many Batswana go home for the holiday, and petty thieves are amongst those who go home. Burglaries, car break-ins, and attacks on unsuspecting pedestrians seem to be on the rise!That is not all, as scammers continue to take money from pensioners as well as other Batswana who may fall prey to their unscrupulous tactics....

Have a Story? Send Us a tip
arrow up