[kictanet] Day 7 of 10:-IGF Discussion, Economic Issues

[John Walubengo]

Mwende,

Sorry for being a day behind - better late than never?

My contribution in e/m-commerce follows.

i) eCommerce in developed economies is hinged on elaborate eLegislation, Regulation and Infrastructure(Certificate Authorities). I think as a country we score zero on all of the above. I really wish I could get a hold of the current ICT bill, those who have seen it claim it covers some of these areas. It is widely acknowledged that developed economies will not extend their digital payment services into our markets without us addressing the above three issues.

ii) mCommerce. I think here we are the leaders - thanks to Safaricom and Zain (formerly Celltel). But these MPesa-related products continue to operate in what Dr. Sihanya, the innovative lawyer and his learned friends would call a legal lacuna. All is good upto when a dispute arises. And with all the raging mobile phone SMS spamming, there will be many disputes arising.  

Why cant we formulate the model laws for mobile commerce (MPESA related) and export that at an international level (Oops, I heard somewhere that our good UK partners in Safaricom may have somewhat beaten us to that - at least on the trademark bit, not sure though)

Anyhow, the point is, if we are unable to see the global nature of our local situations, the more we are likely to lose out.

walu.


 


--- On Tue, 8/19/08, mwende njiraini <mwende.njiraini at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: mwende njiraini <mwende.njiraini at gmail.com>
> Subject: [kictanet] Day 7 of 10:-IGF Discussion, Economic Issues
> To: jwalu at yahoo.com
> Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet at lists.kictanet.or.ke>
> Date: Tuesday, August 19, 2008, 9:21 AM
> Morning!!
> 
> Thank you all for your contribution to various aspects of
> internet
> governance.  Today we start our discussions on economic
> issues.  The
> internet is increasingly playing a critical role in
> economic development
> specifically in facilitating international trade.
> 
> 
> 
> The economic issues therefore basically relate to the
> framework that makes
> e-commerce possible. The participation of developing
> countries in e-commerce
> is limited by the lack the appropriate legislation,
> authentication
> technologies and electronic payment methods.  The main
> limitation however is
> the lack of appropriate legislation that is essential in
> the protection of
> consumers in relation to confidentiality, misleading
> advertising and
> delivery of faulty products.
> 
> 
> In your view, who should be responsible for protection of
> the consumer in
> light of the fact that the national legislation may be
> faced with the
> limitation of jurisdiction?  Given that mobile services are
> available to the
> majority, should developing countries concentrate their
> efforts in enabling
> m-commerce to overcome the challenges of e-commerce?  What
> private sector
> initiatives are there in e-commerce particularly in
> e-Payments?
> 
> Looking forward to hearing from you.
> 
> Kind regards
> Mwende
> 
> 
> 
> Disclaimer: These comments are the author's own
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