Vanessa is a merchant who pays neither premises nor employees.

The entrepreneur has been selling her cocoa butter and shea butter cosmetics online for nearly ten years.

All from his residence in Bouaké, one of the largest Ivorian cities, located in the center of the country.

This seller depends exclusively on this business.

She has clients in Côte d'Ivoire, France and Canada, but faces transaction and fee issues that affect her profits.

"In Côte d'Ivoire, most of my customers do not have a bank card. They pay by Orange Money, Wave, MTN and other mobile wallets, but this generates costs. It can quickly get expensive and slow them down in their purchase. ", she laments. For my customers abroad, it's even worse. They have to travel to send me money by Western Union, Ria or MoneyGram, with fees that can reach 2%."

Kader Diaby, creator of an online clothing brand based on organic materials, makes the same observation.

Its online business constitutes 30% of its monthly income, thanks in particular to customers in Nigeria, South Africa and France.

A figure that could be revised upwards if it had access to PayPal, one of the leaders in online payment in the world.

Unable to withdraw money with PayPal

Since 2014, PayPal has enabled Ivorian consumers with a bank card to make purchases online.

But the service turns out to be useless for merchant accounts because they don't have the ability to receive money on the platform.

This limited access is explained by the risks of cybercrime which increased in the 2000s. In question: the phenomenon of grazers – pros of scams on the Internet who mainly target Europe.

"I find it discriminating," indignant Mory, an entrepreneur who offers online services to artists.

"It forces us to create accounts that we live in Morocco or elsewhere. And when PayPal realizes the deception, it blocks our accounts and our money with it."

But the young Abidjan has no choice but to accept the settlements through the American company if he does not want to lose customers.

Local solutions

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, e-commerce could represent 10% of retail sales in the largest African economies by 2025. In Côte d'Ivoire, this sector already contributes more than 9% of GDP, recalls the Ivorian economist Yao Séraphin Prao.

Aware of the potential of this market, Idriss Marcial Monthe co-founded CinetPay in 2016: a payment and money transfer platform that works without a bank card.

"Before, I had an online business selling Internet domain names and I traveled to collect payments from my customers. The cost of transport plus traffic jams was not viable. We then decided to 'integrate the three mobile payment operators in Côte d'Ivoire on our site to allow our customers to pay us,' recalls the businessman.

This is how the solution to his problem has now become a solution that facilitates the daily lives of e-merchants in a dozen French-speaking African countries.

For the president of CinetPay, development and security go hand in hand.

"The fight against cybercrime led by the Ivorian authorities could pave the way for innovations that will revolutionize the e-commerce sector in Côte d'Ivoire", he explains to France 24.

Focus on banking

How to revolutionize the e-commerce sector when barely 20% of the population has a bank account?

With structural reforms of the banking system and a solid collaboration between the State and structures like Visa, MasterCard and PayPal, answers the economist Yao Séraphin Prao.

Arguments shared by Daniel Ahouassa, co-founder of APaym, an application that allows merchants to accept all types of bank payments.

During the Ivorian Digital Forum (FID) held in Abidjan from September 2 to 3, he called on telecommunications players to seize this market.

"We need to work with the banks to develop electronic means of payment and raise public awareness. We need to make it reliable and accessible," he told France 24 during the event.

While waiting for all these reforms to succeed, it is the merchants who bear the brunt of a lack of reliable online payment solutions in Côte d'Ivoire.

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