Mobile technology, digital payments, and a youthful, enterprising populace are all contributing to Africa’s e-commerce ecosystem’s rapid growth. However, documentation issues in African e-commerce remain a significant barrier that hinders international trade despite this expansion.
Documentation issues are not only administrative obstacles for platforms like BaobabMart, which seek to link African producers to local and international markets; they also directly affect cost, speed, trust, and scalability.
The main documentation issues in African e-commerce today are listed below.
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Disparities in Regulation throughout the Continent
Each of the 50+ nations that make up Africa has its own import and export laws, standards, and certification requirements. International e-commerce is costly and complicated due to the lack of standardisation.
When regulations differ or even contradict between nations, it becomes very challenging for e-commerce platforms to standardise document submission across markets.
Slow and manual documentation procedures
Many customs authorities still mainly rely on paper-based documents, such as Certificates of Origin (CoO), Certificates of Analysis (CoA), and phytosanitary certificates, despite advancements in digital fields like mobile payments.
In Kenya, for example, business groups, including exporters who sell goods online, regularly experience delays and inefficiencies because the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) has historically issued Certificates of Origin manually. These certificates are required before many goods can leave the country and enter global markets, including goods sold via e-commerce channels to buyers abroad.
- Exporters must prepare and submit large volumes of manual paperwork to obtain CoOs.
- These documents are not digitally issued or verified, meaning they often have to be physically taken to offices, handled by officials, or faxed/emailed, increasing administrative costs and error risk.
- Slow information flows between businesses and the Chamber were reported due in part to manual systems, causing unnecessary delays and higher compliance costs.
- Businesses specifically pointed out the burden of repeated visits, physical form submission, and slow turnaround as barriers to scaling international trade for African companies.
This causes a significant gap between digital shopfronts and analogue trade systems for online commerce, where speed and predictability are vital.
High Compliance Costs for SMEs
Strict pre-shipment inspections, product testing, and certification requirements are costly. While large exporters may absorb these costs, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) often cannot.
As a result, many African SMEs are locked out of cross-border e-commerce, not because their products lack quality, but because compliance with these African SMEs export barriers is too expensive or complex for them to handle.
High Rejection Rates at International Borders
Failure to meet international standards for trade documentation, such as EU regulations like EUR.1, leads to frequent rejection of African goods, particularly agricultural and fishery products.
At BaobabMart, we’ve come across situations where we shipped red kola nuts to a buyer in Spain, but customs clearance failed due to documentation errors.
- The absence of the EUR.1 proof of origin removed preferential duty treatment, leading to unexpected charges.
- At the same time, errors in the phytosanitary certificate raised plant-health compliance issues.
The shipment was delayed, then returned. We had to take on logistics losses and refunds, while the buyer’s confidence dropped.
A simple paperwork failure turned a successful e-commerce sale into a financial setback. For platforms like BaobabMart, this affects both merchant success and customer trust.
Counterfeiting and Lack of Trust
Paper-based certificates are easy to forge, tamper with, or manipulate. This undermines trust in product quality and origin, encouraging illegal trade and counterfeit goods.
When documentation cannot be easily verified online, buyers, especially international ones, become hesitant, limiting the growth of cross-border e-commerce for African businesses.
Logistical Inefficiencies and Delays
Poor infrastructure, combined with physical inspections and slow document checks, significantly increases logistics costs by as much as 40% to 60% in some cases.
Delays at borders slow down delivery times, raise prices, and reduce consumer confidence in e-commerce as a reliable channel.
Limited Capacity and Expertise
Across countries such as Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, and Senegal, many SMEs struggle to obtain food-grade certifications or a Certificate of Analysis (COA).
- In many cases, sellers lose high-value opportunities because they cannot provide this documentation.
- A buyer may be ready to purchase bulk quantities, sometimes several tonnes, but requires accredited lab verification.
- Without a COA, the transaction fails before shipment even begins.
- The seller loses a major client, not due to product quality, but due to compliance limitations.
For many African exporters, documentation issues in African e-commerce directly translate into missed growth opportunities. Even promising initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) face friction due to the absence of unified standards for key documents across member states.
Why This Matters for BaobabMart
At BaobabMart, enabling seamless trade between African sellers and buyers means more than listing products online. It requires addressing structural challenges such as documentation, compliance, and trust.
Solving these issues, through digital verification, simplified compliance workflows, and greater standardisation, will be the key to unlocking the full potential of African e-commerce and empowering local businesses to compete globally.
Conclusion: Documentation issues in African E-commerce
Documentation remains one of the biggest barriers to scalable African e-commerce. Until processes become more harmonised, digital, and accessible, platforms, sellers, and consumers will continue to face higher costs and slower trade.
Addressing these challenges is not just a regulatory necessity; it is a strategic opportunity to transform how Africa trades with itself and the world.
