Telecom
Why E-commerce is Thriving in South Africa
South Africa’s ecommerce sector is expected to exceed USD21 billion by 2025, with more than one billion transactions per year. This is largely due to the proliferation of smart devices and the expansion of internet connectivity which has created a viable environment for e-commerce to thrive in the country.
Additionally, the increasing integration of e-commerce platforms with various advanced technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and predictive analytics is also significantly driving the growth of the South African e-commerce market. As a result, the country is becoming a significant player in the global e-commerce industry.
Indeed, the rise of e-commerce in South Africa holds immense opportunities for businesses looking to enter the market. Further, the development presents useful learning points for other countries, such as Nigeria and Kenya, among others, all of which this SeerBit whitepaper exhaustively explores.
Factors Driving E-commerce Growth in South Africa
E-commerce growth in South Africa has been driven by several factors, including increased internet access, improved payment options and the convenience and efficiency of online shopping.
- Increased internet access: Mobile penetration among South African consumers is higher than ever, as indicated by research results from a Geopoll survey conducted in 2020 showing that 45 percent of the South African population browsed the internet on their smartphones for more than four hours a day. The study also revealed that South Africa is one of the biggest adopters of mobile technology in sub-Saharan Africa, with higher rates of smartphone adoption than in most other countries in the region. In terms of total numbers, there are 46.9 million smartphone subscriptions in South Africa, which accounts for users who have multiple phones. As of January 2024, there were 45.34 million active internet users in South Africa.
- Convenience and efficiency of online shopping: For South African consumers, convenience is key when it comes to choosing which online platforms to purchase from. This reduced need to visit a physical store was also identified in a research paper published by Deloitte. The research found that 26 percent of consumers in South Africa said they prefer to shop online because it is more convenient.
- Improved payment options: The integration of wallets, bank apps and shopping apps has made browsing through virtual shopping aisles easier than ever before. Digital wallets have become an entry point for consumers to engage with financial services, thereby creating new opportunities to target the under-served banking population. Also, as South Africans become more comfortable with the concept of online shopping, their appetite for e-commerce solutions continues to increase.
Overcoming Challenges Faced by E-commerce Businesses in South Africa
Despite South Africa’s strong e-commerce growth, the WEF has noted that e commerce entrepreneurs are challenged by issues such as low consumer trust and e-skills, low internet penetration and affordability, uncompetitive delivery infrastructure, fragmented markets and barriers to cross-border e-payments.
- Low Trust of Online Platforms
Many South Africans still do not trust online stores with their personal payment details. This stems from lack of knowledge about online payment systems and advanced security measures. To overcome this mistrust, merchants should use a PCI DSS certified payment service provider (PSP) that meets high security standards and keeps customer information safe. If customers understand how online fraud is prevented and the techniques that are used to prevent security breaches or fraud attempts, they are more likely to trust an e-commerce website with their payment information
- High Cost of Data and Internet Penetration
South Africans pay up to USD5.29 per gigabyte (GB) of data, a cost equivalent to nearly four hours work for people earning the minimum wage. That compares with about USD1.53 per gigabyte in North Africa and USD2.47 in Western Europe, according to research by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation charity that highlights, among other topics, sub-Saharan Africa’s sky-high data costs. The region has the world’s most expensive mobile data prices, according to the Worldwide Mobile Data Pricing 2021 report.
- Issues with delivery infrastructure
Logistics is already a vital part of any retailer’s business plan, but its importance will continue to grow as the use of e-commerce for transactions increases. For stores to be efficient, they must be able to respond quickly and accurately to be able to deliver the correct products to customers on time. Now more than ever an efficient supply chain is needed that gives a high level of service across all channels.
The Role of Technology in Shaping South Africa’s E-commerce Landscape
Technology has become an integral part of every aspect of life, and the retail industry in South Africa is no exception. As consumer expectations continue to evolve, retailers are embracing innovative technologies to enhance the shopping experience and stay ahead of the competition.
Emerging technologies including contactless payments, virtual and augmented reality experiences, AI and mobile payments are all having a profound impact on e-commerce in the country.
Conclusion
The growth of South Africa’s ecommerce industry will likely surpass projections, thanks to the country’s growing appetite for online shopping. The penetration of smartphones, access to data, increased number of platforms and products as well as evolving regulation supporting the industry are significant factors contributing positively to the growth of the industry. There has never been a better time for businesses to enter the ecommerce market in South Africa.
This SeerBit whitepaper casts a deeper look at the trends, factors, future prospects and leading players transforming South Africa into the continent’s biggest e-commerce market.
Click HERE to access the full whitepaper.
Cyber immunity is gaining traction as essential defence for everyday Nigerians facing surging online scams, phishing attacks, and SIM swap fraud that now target ordinary smartphone users.
Once limited to corporations, threats like fake bank alerts, WhatsApp investment links, and account takeovers have infiltrated daily digital life, outpacing basic antivirus and passwords.
Digital Immune System for Resilience
Cyber immunity integrates devices, apps, and user habits to prevent, detect, and recover from breaches, mimicking a body’s immune response rather than relying solely on firewalls.
Modern smartphones exemplify this with instant app restrictions, suspicious site warnings, and secure hardware for payments and biometrics, curbing damage from human errors like clicking bad links.
In Nigeria’s fintech-driven economy—banking, shopping, education online—individuals lag behind banks in security, making consistent vigilance critical.
Practical Steps Build Personal Defences
Key actions include password managers with 2FA and biometrics, automatic updates for vulnerability patches, cautious browsing (verify URLs, shun urgent requests), and routine data backups to cloud or external drives.
Ignoring updates to save data heightens risks on dominant Android devices, while messaging app scams demand wariness.
Technology aids via OS behaviour detection and isolation, reducing third-party app reliance for safer defaults.
As Nigeria’s digital expansion accelerates, cyber immunity shifts security from one-off setups to ongoing habits, averting minor scares from escalating to major losses.
Renowned digital innovation expert, Prof. Chris Uwaje, has celebrated Leo Stan Ekeh as a visionary “digital anticipator” and pioneer on the occasion of his 70th birthday.
Leo Stan Ekeh
In a heartfelt tribute, Uwaje hailed Ekeh as the “Saint Leo of all Stars from the Ekeh Universe,” saluting his masterclass contributions to human innovation, development, and global youth empowerment.
Visionary Impact on Africa, World
Uwaje praised Ekeh’s foresight, emotional intelligence, and resilience in transforming digital entrepreneurship, creating millions of jobs, billions in economic value, and expanded education access worldwide.
The encomium spotlighted Ekeh’s trailblazing solutions driving sustainable development, employment, and economic growth across Africa and beyond.
“Your legacy continues to shape a brighter future,” Uwaje noted, adding that Ekeh’s “extraordinary best is yet to come” as the “Field-Marshall of ANTICIPATORS.”
Cheers to More Foresighted Legacy
Uwaje declared: “From the gaze into the digital cloud: ‘the world ain’t seen nothing yet’!” while toasting Ekeh as the “true digital Conqueror of Africa and the world.”
The tribute underscores Ekeh’s enduring influence in digital disruption, innovation, and youth-focused initiatives that continue to inspire global progress.
Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria is positioning as a regional Internet Exchange hub for West Africa in terms of infrastructure and traffic. Muhammed Rudman, chief executive officer, IXPN, stated this at its 2026 members engagement forum held in Lagos. He noted some of the major milestone IXPN achieved last year to include one terabit of traffic recorded in March 2025.
“At that time, we became the 63rd internet exchange point in the world. Among all the exchanges in Europe and America and in the entire world, we become the number 63 in the world. To achieve that one terabit of traffic. Again, we were able to achieve two terabits of traffic within seven, eight months of the year.
“We achieve this by ensuring that we push for members to upgrade, those that were on 1 Gig to 10 Gig, those on 10 Gig to 100 Gig. We had a strategic infrastructure upgrade across our networks, put 400 Gig enable switches, increase our fiber links to all the data centers and we onboarded 17 new members last year. All the trainings and the operational excellence ensured that our network is up and running 24/7,” he said.
Industry Impact
The impact of that one terabit traffic is data sovereignty. “We were able to domesticate. Based on the survey we conducted, 54% of our members said that they are exchanging 50% of their traffic and above locally, which is really, significant one.
“We are also setting up a benchmark for other African IXPs. I can assure you that in all the community driven internet exchange points in Africa, we are the number one. There’s a community driven internet exchange point in South Africa that was established 10 years before IXPN. There is one in Kenya that was established 6 years before IXPN, but we are way ahead of them when it comes to internet traffic.
“We are also promoting intra African connectivity. As at today, we have customers from Niger, from, Burkina Faso, trying to reach to Nigeria. Recently, we onboarded a very large company in Ivory Coast, to connect to Nigeria.
“Gradually, Nigeria is tilting towards becoming the regional hub for West Africa, where you see Internet Service Providers coming to achieve that. And in terms of the traffic, in 2015 we were at four Gigabits per second. It moves to 21 in 2017 and 52 gigabits per second.
“But by the year 2023 it has reached 540 gigabits. By 2024 we have reached 900 gigabits. But by the end of 2025 we have achieved the two terabits of traffic”.
Network Infrastructure Development
Some of the technical feet IXPN achieved includes, deployment of sFlow; which is a peer to peer traffic analysis. “We’re able to see what members are exchanging between themselves and between the data centers, not the actual content or information, but rather the volume of traffic, and also between our data centers. And based on this, we’re able to do the upgrades.
“We did a multiple link upgrades from 300 Gigabits last year from Digital Realty to Equinix. It was 300 Gig as at the end of 2024, and by 2025, we’ve increased that to 500 gigabits per second. Digital Realty to Rack Center, it was 200 Gigabits per second. We also upgraded that to 500 Gigabits per second.
Open Access Data Centre to Equinix. We’ve upgraded from 20 Gigabits per second to 200 Gigabits per second. We always monitor the ports, and based on that, we increase immediately we reach the threshold of 80%.
“We did an upgrade on the IXP manager. This allows each member to have a login portal to see the traffic they are exchanging and other details, the port as well as to do their own configuration,” he added.
Technical Project Milestones
Microsoft connected cache. “We deployed Microsoft content cache and that has been deployed in Lagos. It was 25 Gigabits per second as of 2024 by 2025 we had to upgrade the infrastructure to 75 Gigabits per second servers, that will be able to accommodate all the Microsoft updates they are doing, exports, download and among others.
“This is part of the content that Microsoft is not providing locally, but we got those servers deployed, and our intention is by next year to see how we can replicate this across the country. Last year, we also deployed the same server in Abuja so that the Abuja people and the Kano people can reach that content without coming back to Lagos.
The Google Global Cache (GGC); “We are hosting all these at IXPN. We also upgraded from 53 Gigabits per second servers in 2024 to 153 Gigabits per second. And this is a huge traffic of YouTube. And as we speak, we are also working towards upgrading those servers,” he explained.
Strategic Partnerships
“We signed an MoU last year between us and an IXP in Senegal, when we went for West African peering forum. A lot of African ISPs are looking to us to see how we can guide them and support them.
“For example, internet exchange point from Gabon, internet exchange point from Rwanda and ISPs in Africa are looking at us as a model to copy, and we tend to support them. We also had a strategic partnership with CIRA, the Canada Internet Registry Association, which is similar to Nira, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association, to have their secondary authoritative servers into Nigeria as an anycast instance. And when they are hosting that, they are hosting other top-level domains as well, like alibaba.info.org.ca, are also hosted with us.
“Since they launched last year, we have seen a traffic of over 1000 DNS responses per second. Presently, there are 13 global root servers in the world, and those 13 servers are the ones that translate your IP address into a domain name. Any website you browse, you put a domain name, it translates into an IP address and its chain of referrals, Nigeria has.ng as a country, called Top Level Domain”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Charles Nmeregini, Business Development Manager, IXPN, said that the members engagement forum is more than an annual country. “Today, we pause to celebrate the milestone, the milestone that we have reached together, the milestone that have bolstered our local traffic exchange, reduce latency and significantly lower the cost of Internet access across the nations and beyond.
“However, today is equally about the horizon. It is a strategic moment as we unveil our 2026 service road map, a forward-looking rubbing designed to deepen interconnection, enhance service delivery and unlock new value across the ecosystem. In an era defined by rapid technological shift, standing still is not an option.
“This forum will spotlight exclusive, strategic business opportunities, new avenues for growth, enhanced pairing capabilities and innovative service model tailored to give your organization a competitive edge. We are not just exchanging data, we are exchanging ideas that will drive the next wave of Nigeria digital economy,” he added.
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