Bio

Hi, I'm Alastair Tempest! I'm the CEO of both the Ecommerce Forum Africa and the Ecommerce Forum South Africa. Our aim is make sure that the opportunities from ecommerce are available to everyone in Africa and make sure that the voice of African ecommerce is heard on the continental and world stage. The main problems ecommerce faces in Africa are: - lack of telecoms and logistics infrastructure - challenges to get funding for business growth - lack of trust in ecommerce as a whole (although that's greatly improved post-COVID) - tariff and non-tariff barriers across borders within Africa and across the world - Challenges to sell across frontiers, especially within Africa, due to national Central Banks' and taxation authorities' regulations - lack of training and digital skills. To solve these challenges, we are concentrating on representing the ecommerce sector to governments and regulators, creating a central repository of information and research for ecommerce and encouraging train the trainer programmes across Africa. I'm a regular speaker at conferences across the world, representing the voice of African ecommerce, including the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in Vienna, and the African Union. I'm a member of the AU Digital Economy Committee and on the IORMA Advisory Board. I authored ''The Digital Economy and Ecommerce in Africa- Drivers of the African Free Trade Area?'' in April 2020, and co-authored with Michelle Chivunga, ''Digital Disruption in Africa, Mapping Innovations for the AfCFTA in Post-COVID Times'' in March 2021, and ''Regional Value Chains and Reindustrialisation in Africa: Leveraging the AfCFTA'' in October 2021. All three papers for the South African Institution of International Affairs (https://saiia.org.za/). Recently I joined the Denis Diderot Committee / Comité Denis Diderot on freedom of speech and the dangers of 'alternative reality'/propaganda. I'm married to Lauretta Ngakane, daughter of the Rev. Maurice Ngakane.