DHL, the world’s largest logistics company, and the International Trade Centre (ITC) announced that they would deepen their collaboration to enable more African enterprises to do business online. The extended partnership will focus on strengthening trade facilitation and logistics in developing countries to facilitate e-commerce. The announcement was made at ‘Connecting African Enterprises to the World of e-Commerce’, an event held at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa.
As part of the extended collaboration, DHL will become a partner of ITC’s e-Solutions Programme and will provide advisory services on solutions for e-commerce transportation and logistics. DHL will also provide support to the eComSouk initiative, which helps develop tools for traders in Africa to sell their goods online.
DHL and ITC are already working together on knowledge transfer to boost the competitiveness of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially in logistics and supply-chain management. Building competence in export processes provides easier access for SMEs to regional and global markets.
The two organisations are also providing joint logistics advisory support to customs authorities and customs-clearance providers, and to SMEs’ transport management. According to the ITC a logistics and transport advisory programme was recently launched in Senegal in partnership with African regional institutions, which will soon be expanded to include the other eight countries belonging to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
