A growing number of women entrepreneurs in Ivory Coast are turning their daily social media interactions into thriving digital businesses, prompting the African Development Bank (AfDB) and its partners to launch a new e-commerce manual for African women entrepreneurs, aimed at helping women scale online commerce across the continent.
The guide responds to the rapidly growing digital shift in African markets, with women increasingly using platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook and TikTok to contact customers, manage orders and arrange deliveries.
Social media becomes a marketplace
For many women entrepreneurs, e-commerce doesn’t start with a formal online store or complex digital system. Instead, it starts with a familiar communication platform used every day for both personal and business purposes.
In markets in Abidjan and other cities in Ivory Coast, women selling textiles, atieke, vegetables and spices are increasingly relying on messaging apps and social networks to run their businesses.
Through WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages, traders accept pre-orders, check product availability and arrange delivery before they reach the market.
Meanwhile, TikTok Live sessions have emerged as a dynamic sales channel for fabric traders to showcase products in real-time, answer questions instantly, and sell inventory to customers watching online.
For many entrepreneurs, these digital tools allow them to secure sales earlier in the day and reduce the uncertainty of traditional market transactions.
New EC manual to support female entrepreneurs
To help women transition from informal digital sales to structured online commerce, the African Development Bank and its partners have developed an e-commerce manual for women entrepreneurs in Africa.
This manual focuses on practical aspects of building a digital business, including:
Choosing the right online sales platform
Building trust in digital and mobile payment systems
Delivery logistics and customer relationship management
Guide your business decisions with simple data insights
Rather than focusing solely on technology, this guide is designed around the everyday realities of women running small businesses, many of whom are juggling entrepreneurship with home responsibilities.
Digital commerce helps you manage time and risk
E-commerce is also helping women manage one of the biggest barriers to economic participation: time poverty.
According to Ivory Coast’s national gender profile, women spend nearly three times as much time doing unpaid care and housework as men.
Digital commerce allows entrepreneurs to organize orders remotely, reduce time spent in physical markets, and stabilize demand through advance booking, allowing them to balance business activities with family responsibilities.
Female entrepreneurs driving Africa’s economy
Despite structural barriers, women across Africa continue to start businesses at higher rates than anywhere else in the world, according to the Africa Gender Index 2023 analysis report.
However, the report notes that statistics often fail to capture the day-to-day adaptations women are making to keep businesses afloat, such as communicating with customers and implementing digital tools to manage operations.
Training programs to support your digital growth
AfDB also supports women entrepreneurs through initiatives such as the 50 Million African Women Speak Online Training Programme, which provides digital and business skills.
Participants reported that learning how to use online marketing and digital tools helped strengthen their businesses.
Entrepreneur Nadine Fiossi said the program has significantly improved her business.
“The training has increased my profits significantly,” she said. “Using the tools I learned during the program, I was able to improve my marketing strategy and streamline my operations.”
AfDB expands digital and financial support
Beyond training and manuals, the African Development Bank invests in a wide range of programs aimed at supporting women’s economic empowerment.
Major initiatives include:
African Affirmative Financial Action for Women (AFAWA) Expanding Women’s Access to Finance
Fashionomics Africa supports female entrepreneurs in the fashion and textile sector
Investing in digital infrastructure and digital skills development
Small digital steps to drive economic transformation
Experts say women entrepreneurs’ shift to digital commerce represents a quiet but powerful transformation in Africa’s informal economy.
What started as a simple conversation with a customer on a messaging app has gradually evolved into a structured digital business model that improves market access, financial stability, and business growth.
For many entrepreneurs, digital transformation is not an abstract concept, but a daily practice.
As AfDB officials point out, it happens one message, one order, and one entrepreneur at a time.
