The Minister in charge of Knowledge Economy and Emerging Enterprises, Yassine El Mahdi Walid, stressed during his presentation of the outcome of his sector within the activities of the National Conference for Startups held at the International Conference Center, on Saturday, in Algiers, that the results reached reflect the ability of the Algerian market to e-commerce.
Algeria is seeking to improve electronic payment services, by reviewing the currency and credit law, which is currently on the study table at the Bank of Algeria and the Ministry of Finance.
According to the figures of the Economic Interests Group, the number of cards traded between banks increased by 20% at the end of 2021 compared to 2020, to reach 11.6 million cards, and Algeria recorded more than 100,000 electronic payment transactions carried out by the student to pay university fees this year.
The government has developed a program aimed at accelerating the process of modernizing payment systems, to reach more than 16 million users by 2024, with more than one million merchants equipped with electronic payment devices.
Corona and bureaucracy
According to the director and founder of the Tolba Store platform specialized in the field of e-commerce, Sami Alioush, the Corona pandemic contributed to an increase in citizens’ demand for e-commerce, which encouraged investors in the field of this type of commerce to develop their services and provide more offers.
Alioush told Sky News Arabia: “We entered the field of e-commerce in 2017, and the start was very difficult, but with the creation of the Ministry for Startups and the Knowledge Economy, we noticed more facilities and less bureaucratic obstacles that were in our way.”
Algeria headed in 2020 to establish a ministry for start-ups, which encouraged many young people to invest in the field of e-commerce.
According to the Economic Interests Group for Electronic Banking Services, Algeria currently has more than 150 commercial sites that enable Algerian citizens to make their purchases via an electronic payment card.
What is noticeable is the focus of the electronic payment field in Algeria on economic activities of a special nature in the field of management and insurance, mobile phone services, transportation and tourism, as well as the sale of goods, training, visa, parcel transportation and the sale of electronic tickets for sporting events.
Experts look at those numbers registered by the government, from another angle, by differentiating between electronic payment operations and the e-commerce market in its modern sense.
Which, according to experts, makes the percentage of increase recorded at the level of electronic payment operations in Algeria in need of a careful scientific review.
The expert in information technology, Yazid Akdal, said that electronic payment operations did not come out of the space of paying bills and charging mobile phone balances, and did not include all sectors, which makes it far from being e-commerce in the modern sense.
Speaking to Sky News Arabia, Agdal said: “Algeria has enacted a law to impose the distribution of electronic payment devices in shops, restaurants, cafes and other shopping places, but in the end it retracted the decision due to the lack of readiness of the market.”
He stressed that trade in itself suffers from the black market and monetary financial transactions due to the merchants’ fear of taxes.
Agdal indicated that the state must provide more guarantees to merchants by expediting the review of the e-commerce law and bringing it in line with the necessities of the Algerian market in a way that protects the consumer and serves the merchant.
