Accra, May 27, GNA - Dr Benjamin Aggrey Ntim, former Minister of Communication, has called for the development of inter-country platforms to promote trade and spread the use of e-commerce operations, especially in the Small and medium scale enterprises and agriculture sectors. He said a common platform would make it easier for the deployment of technology across the country in the sub-region. Dr Ntim said the mobile phone had a great potential for closing the e-commerce gap in rural areas and urged stakeholders to actively promote it to enhance development.

"It is my hope that this gathering will give great attention to measures that can be adopted in promoting e-commerce in the SME sector and agriculture in the rural areas," he said. Dr Ntim was speaking at the maiden edition of transaction Switching Africa in Accra, organized by Intermarc Consulting, with support from Mediterranean Smart Cards Company to consider the advancement in payment technologies and the drive to have a cashless society. African governments are adopting e-payment to facilitate electronic transactions and these are projected to increase tremendously in the next years, making it essential for African governments to put in place reliable payment infrastructure to handle envisaged growth. In order to create the enabling environment, Dr Ntim said, there was the need to establish the legal framework and common platform for the different actors to operate smoothly.

"In most countries, this implies the formulation of policies and the enactment of appropriate laws by government to regulate the operation of electronic transaction processes," he said. Mr Adeyemi Adeyinka, Managing Director, Intermarc Consulting, said the conference would address salient issues with respect to electronic payment systems, especially in Africa.

Focus will be on assessing institutional framework that create enabling environment for operators, regulatory policies that encourage foreign investment, thereby, ensuring sustainable capacity, avenues for cost efficiencies on dual platforms (consumers and solution providers), managing fraud and other risk associated with switching technology. The conference expects to achieve and develop organised structures to coordinate electronic commerce in Africa. 28 May 10