Le lundi 7 avril 2025 s' est ouvert à Cotonou, au Bénin le 4th on-site workshop for African countries of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) regional project for operational efficiency and d Development of electronic commerce (ORE3). Throughout the week, delegates from 45 African countries will strengthen their operational capacities in order to meet the requirements of international trade and electronic commerce

The 4th regional workshop on operational readiness for e-commerce was launched yesterday by Alban BESSAN, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The workshop revolves around different axes according to Chokri ELLILI, a training officer at UPU. These include compliance with operational, technical and regulatory requirements; the visibility of mail, in particular through electronic data exchanges at the level of shipments, dispatches and shipments; the improvement of data quality and compliance with technical standards because, for the latter, “without correct data exchanges, nothing can happen, especially in the field of electronic commerce”.

The workshop will also discuss supply chain integration, which includes everything related to postal customs clearance, international transport, postal security, and postal addressing; service quality and service reliability; certification , an area in which much remains to be done; and finally, integration into electronic commerce, the objective pursued by the project, and which will be the subject of work this year and during the next cycle.

These meetings in Cotonou, according to the director general of La Poste du Bénin SA, reflect several initiatives by the Beninese government intended to make Benin “an e-commerce hub” at the regional and international levels. So, for 5 days, the discussions will focus on e-commerce. According to the director general of La Poste du Bénin SA, e-commerce is “an opportunity” not only for the economies of countries and businesses, but also for populations because it poses “unprecedented prospects in terms of market access, job creation but also of stimulating growth”. According to Krishna LOKOSSOU, to take full advantage of this dynamic, it is necessary to “create a favorable environment not only in terms of solid digital infrastructures, adapted regulations, efficient logistics not only in terms of severity but also in terms of cost and

Expressing the hope for a rich, productive, participatory workshop that brings concrete solutions, he hoped that the ideas that will emerge will nourish the “collective ambition” of States to “build a solid, inclusive and competitive e-commerce ecosystem” on a regional and international scale.”

According to Léonida DIEME, representative of the UPU's Directorate for Cooperation and Development, the aim of the work on e-commerce started in 2016, is to prepare African countries that are lagging behind in e-commerce, compared to several other regions in the world.