Digital trade – Research ICT Solutions

28 Jul 2021

Workshop on digital taxation in Africa

by Steve Esselaar Digital economy, Digital trade, OTT Regulation, Taxation

RIS was a presenter in a recent workshop held by Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA). Dr. Stork presented evidence that shows that few regulators or tax authorities have considered the trade-off between higher taxation and lower affordability and access to ICTs. “To be able to provide e-services such as health, education and fintech, we need increased connectivity. ICT taxes make these services either too expensive or less attractive to invest in.” You can find Dr. Stork’s presentation to CIPESA here.

17 Mar 2021

D.R. Congo: International Bandwidth Tax

by Steve Esselaar Digital economy, Digital trade, Regulation, Taxation

RIS has just completed an analysis of the proposed International bandwidth tax in D.R.Congo. In January 2021, operators were notified that they were required to pay a 5% fee on all international bandwidth. Our analysis shows that 47 countries in Africa use more international bandwidth per capita than D.R. Congo and 44 are cheaper for a basic 300 MB basket per month. 10MB per day for a month, i.e., 300MB, costs 4.6% of the average GNI per capita per month in the D.R. Congo, double the target of the 2% affordability target of the Broadband Commission. The result of an international bandwidth […]

25 Nov 2020

Digital trade and trust

by Steve Esselaar Digital economy, Digital trade

In a second presentation to the African Union eCommerce Conference held between the 23rd and 25th of November, RIS focused on the role of trust and digital trade. Trust is the engine for digital growth. Digital trade, the digital economy and the fourth industrial revolution are all based on technologies that require trust on both sides of a transaction, be it business to consumer, business to business, government to citizen or government to business. This means new or updated policies, laws and regulations for most African countries. The ideal outcome is where consumers and firms have a common understanding of their rights […]

25 Nov 2020

Digital trade in Africa

by Steve Esselaar Digital economy, Digital trade

As part of the African Union eCommerce Conference held between the 23rd and 25th of November, RIS presented the findings of its report on Digital Trade and the Digital Economy in Africa. Africa’s trade in digitally-delivered services is tiny, at below 1% of total trade. Online services provided by governments to citizens are also at low levels. This is not surprising, given the weak performance in the enabling platforms of IDs, payments and connectivity. But, these poor rankings show that there is great scope for improvement, and relatively small changes can have big results. Africa’s opportunity lies in combining the benefits […]