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Digital Trade for Africa project
The rise of digital trade offers important opportunities for Africa to boost growth, create better jobs and reduce poverty. To support African countries' efforts to harness these opportunities, the WTO Secretariat and the World Bank joined forces in 2023 to launch the "Digital Trade for Africa" (DTA) project. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the factors shaping digital trade across the continent and in individual countries and to offer support programmes, capacity building and technical assistance.
Background
Digital trade promotes growth by improving the allocation of resources, leveraging economies of scale, and stimulating technological diffusion and innovation1. This is particularly true for Africa, given the potential of digital trade in services to help overcome some of the obstacles that have hampered the participation of the continent in global trade, such as outdated transport infrastructure or slow border clearing processes.
Launch of the project
The project was officially launched in July 2023 with the production of a joint World Bank-WTO policy note - "Turning Digital Trade into a Catalyst for African Development" - that examined the opportunities and challenges that digital trade presents for Africa.
The note proposes the undertaking of country-level digital trade assessments, piloted in a select number of interested countries, that would build upon and complement existing work.2 Several African WTO members volunteered to take part, prompting joint missions by the WTO Secretariat and World Bank staff to six pilot countries - Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda. On the basis of the experience gained through the pilot phase, the project will be refined and could be extended to more countries on request.
Presentation of the project
At the WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference, held in February 2024, the WTO Secretariat and the World Bank presented the Digital Trade for Africa project, outlining the work undertaken and next steps to all WTO members. They also announced that the findings of the individual digital trade assessments and field missions would be reflected in "digital trade reports" produced for each of the six pilot countries.
Preparation of reports
During 2025, the draft reports were shared with national authorities of the pilot countries for their review and feedback. After being validated domestically, the reports were made publicly available at the WTO's Public Forum 2025, bringing the pilot phase of the project to a close, and can be accessed below.
An overview paper takes stock of the work undertaken in the pilot phase, discussing the lessons learned and outlining next steps.
Notes:
- See Digital Trade for Development. back to text
- This includes, notably, UNCTAD's e-trade readiness diagnostics (see eTrade Readiness Assessments | UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)). back to text
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