Cyber Security: How businesses can build cyber resilient systems to weather attacks | Market Place
The Market Place with Daryl Kwawu (25-10-23)
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, good afternoon. Welcome to the Marketplace.
00:02 Coming up, an ambitious target,
00:03 National Insurance Commission resolves
00:05 to increase insurance coverage to 60% by 2028.
00:10 In the next five years,
00:13 we are expecting to take this to about 60%.
00:18 And this is the percentage of the population
00:21 that is covered by insurance.
00:24 Also coming up, Food and Beverages Association
00:26 joins other business groups to demand review
00:29 of three tax measures introduced in the 2023 budget.
00:33 We are of the firm belief that the fight for corruption
00:37 can succeed in this country if taxes reduced drastically.
00:42 Some of the taxes are nuisance taxes, they can be canceled.
00:46 And this afternoon on the Joy Business Summit,
00:52 we discuss how businesses can build cyber resilient systems
00:56 to weather attacks.
00:59 My name is Darrell Kwok.
01:00 Thanks for joining us.
01:01 Details coming up.
01:02 (upbeat music)
01:07 And thanks for staying with us.
01:23 The National Insurance Commission has resolved
01:25 to increase insurance coverage to 60% by 2028.
01:29 According to the acting commissioner, Michael Andor,
01:31 tailored products targeted at the informal economy
01:34 are being developed to serve the needs
01:36 of the informal sector.
01:37 He has been speaking at the 2023 International Conference
01:41 on Inclusive Insurance co-hosted
01:43 by the National Insurance Commission and its local partners.
01:47 - The 19th International Conference on Inclusive Insurance
01:50 is a gathering of insurance experts
01:52 from over 50 countries across the globe.
01:55 The goal is to discuss and identify ways
01:58 of accelerating the growth and economic viability
02:01 and inclusive insurance for emerging markets.
02:03 With insurance coverage hovering around 40%,
02:07 efforts are being made through tailored insurance products
02:10 to the informal economy to expand coverage to 60% by 2028.
02:14 Michael Andor is the acting commissioner
02:17 of National Insurance Commission.
02:18 - In the next five years, we are expecting to take this
02:22 to about 60%.
02:25 And this is the percentage of the population
02:28 that is covered by insurance.
02:30 We sometimes get obsessed with insurance penetration.
02:35 I understand that is how much money insurance is making.
02:38 This is how many people is insurance protecting.
02:42 And I think lives are also important.
02:44 So we've been focusing on the individual personality
02:48 levels with inclusive insurance for some time.
02:50 Our current phase of inclusive insurance,
02:52 we are looking at the micro and small enterprises,
02:55 micro and small businesses, the carpenters, the masons.
02:59 They are the biggest employer in the system.
03:02 They do run risks.
03:04 The fact that they don't have insurance now
03:06 doesn't mean they don't have, they have their own risks.
03:08 It's just that we haven't addressed those risks.
03:10 So that's exactly what we are doing now.
03:12 - Minister of Finance, Ken Ufuriata,
03:14 called for the establishment of a standing committee
03:17 to ensure utmost inclusive insurance.
03:19 - I charge the chair of the NIC,
03:23 the president of the association and the brokers
03:28 that we really ought to have a standing committee permanently
03:32 to really delve into the issue of inclusive insurance
03:36 so that we'll be ahead of the game.
03:38 - The vice chair of Munich Re Foundation, Dierk Reinhardt,
03:41 called for the development of the insurance value chain
03:44 to ensure the needs of consumers are met.
03:47 - Having insurance is fine.
03:50 What if the insurance takes six months to pay
03:55 after a disaster?
03:56 Then people have sold their assets to recover,
04:00 lost their income, sold their animals, for example.
04:04 So what I want to say is we really need to dive deep
04:10 into what does the market need?
04:13 How do people work?
04:15 What is their risks?
04:17 And how can you really serve them
04:19 so that we make them more resilient?
04:21 And really insurance contributes
04:23 to sustainable economic development.
04:26 - The International Conference on Inclusive Insurance
04:29 is organized by Munich Re Foundation
04:31 and the Micro Insurance Network
04:33 with the National Insurance Commission of Ghana,
04:35 the Ghana Insurance Association,
04:37 and the Insurance Brokers Association of Ghana
04:39 as local hosts.
04:41 - Now the Food and Beverages Association
04:43 has joined other business groups to impress on government
04:45 the need to review the three tax measures
04:47 introduced in the 2023 budget.
04:50 They say Ghana has tried the option of higher taxes
04:52 for decades, yet the economy keeps failing.
04:55 The government in the media budget introduced new taxes
04:58 such as the growth and stability levy
04:59 to shore up revenue mobilization.
05:02 President of the association, John Aouni,
05:04 told the media that businesses are overburdened with taxes.
05:08 - We are of the firm belief that the fight for corruption
05:12 can succeed in this country if taxes reduce drastically.
05:17 Some of the taxes are nuisance taxes,
05:20 they can be canceled.
05:22 The tax base can be broadened.
05:24 The tax net can be broadened.
05:27 There are some taxes that can be increased.
05:30 For instance, we have some,
05:34 vehicle income tax,
05:36 taxi driver, whatever,
05:37 they pay like 12 cities per quarter.
05:39 They can pay far more than that.
05:42 And when we talk about revenue,
05:47 from the private sector perspective,
05:48 we are of the belief that revenue does not necessarily
05:51 generally come from taxation.
05:54 You can equally have more revenue by making sure
05:57 that you have value for your expenditure.
05:59 Cut down your expenses,
06:00 cut down your expenses,
06:01 make sure that your expenses are put in the right channel,
06:03 make sure that prices are done well.
06:06 If you earn a salary of 2,000 cities
06:09 and you go into a restaurant
06:11 where the buffet plate is 300 cities,
06:16 or 500 cities,
06:18 that's your own business
06:19 because you can equally go to where
06:20 you can have the same food
06:22 at 50 cities or 60 cities to buy.
06:25 But in the case of Ghana,
06:28 it appears that we are looking at one way over the years,
06:33 that the only time we can,
06:34 the only way we can mobilize more revenue
06:36 is to increase our taxes.
06:39 - Meantime, the business community is calling
06:42 on the government to expedite talks
06:44 with its external creditors
06:45 in securing finance and assurance
06:47 in order for the country to get the second tranche
06:50 of the IMF bailout package ahead of the Christmas season.
06:53 They are worried any delay in the disbursement
06:55 of the IMF bailout package
06:57 could have a major impact on the exchange rate
07:00 during the festive season.
07:01 Speaking to Joy Business,
07:02 President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association,
07:05 Dr. Joseph Obeng,
07:06 says securing the fund will go a long way
07:09 to ease the demand for the dollar
07:11 during the festive season
07:12 and consequently keep prices relatively stable.
07:16 - It's very important that government do everything
07:19 under its capacity to make sure
07:23 that the second tranche come in time,
07:25 especially when at this time
07:27 we are going for the Christmas purchases.
07:30 It means that import is going to go up
07:36 and it is going to also make the exchange rate
07:39 if it is not well managed by Bank of Ghana.
07:42 You know, we have this perennial problem
07:47 where December, January, and then early February,
07:52 we have the exchange rate going up.
07:55 At this time around,
07:56 we have to take the lessons of last year
08:00 and manage the foreign exchange institution well
08:05 so that we do not go back.
08:07 That's my prayer that we are able to manage.
08:09 But I'm not also seeing excessive importation
08:13 due to the effects of the reasons
08:16 that I've already alluded.
08:18 There are little turnovers.
08:20 The depression of our capital and all that,
08:23 I do not foresee that we do any excessive importation
08:28 this time around.
08:30 And then things like speculation should also be managed.
08:34 And most times when there's a slight increase
08:38 in the forest, we talk too much to the extent
08:43 that it gets out of hand.
08:45 These things does not work
08:48 when there's too much noise outside.
08:50 When there's too much noise around it.
08:51 So we should be able to know how to manage speculation
08:55 when there's the least increase in the dollar
08:59 so that we do not experience what happened
09:02 during the previous year.
09:04 - Now, customs officials at various border towns
09:07 are calling for more resources to deal with traders
09:10 using unapproved routes for smuggling.
09:13 According to the second in command
09:14 at the Aplago border checkpoint, Emmanuel Parker,
09:17 this is necessary for the team
09:18 to ensure the appropriate revenues are good for the state.
09:21 He was speaking to Joy Business at the Dabala border post
09:24 where the team intercepted some 6,000 pieces
09:27 of mobile phones and over 11,000 pieces of wax prints
09:31 smuggled into the country without payment of duty.
09:34 Here's more.
09:35 - The wax prints were intercepted
09:37 at the border post of Dabala in the Volta region
09:40 when officials of the customs division
09:42 of the Ghana Revenue Authority were on duty.
09:44 The importer failed to pay the assigned duties
09:46 on the products which is estimated at about 1.3 million CDs.
09:50 Meanwhile, on a separate operation,
09:52 officers at the Jopon post also intercepted
09:56 6,000 pieces of mobile phones
09:58 which are yet to be evaluated.
09:59 Dary Abdalla is the officer in charge,
10:01 Eastern Corridor Monitoring Team.
10:03 - 11,000 full pieces imitation wax.
10:07 We're talking around 1.3 million Ghana CD without penalty.
10:11 So if they're imposing 100%, that will be times two.
10:15 - That's the taxes that was supposed to pay, is that it?
10:16 - Yes, yes.
10:17 Normal taxes to 1.3 million Ghana CDs on this.
10:21 - What about the mobile phones?
10:23 - The mobile phones, we are yet to get a value
10:26 because we wanted them to pick a sample
10:29 so that we get the value.
10:30 We don't have all the values unless we go to the sector.
10:32 - Second in command for the Aplau border checkpoint,
10:35 Emmanuel Parker has been highlighting the need
10:37 for more resources to officials along the border post
10:41 since many of such traders try to evade duties
10:44 and use those areas.
10:46 - This one, we were told they loaded elsewhere
10:49 and then the goods that were paid from the baggage
10:52 were sent out and then added onto it.
10:55 And then it makes it look as if a flower clad these things.
11:00 But this is the problem we are having.
11:02 We need logistics.
11:04 We need men to come back because the borders are vast
11:08 and there are porous.
11:09 And when we close one side, another portion is opened.
11:14 And before we get to know it's open,
11:18 there would have been a lot of goods coming through.
11:22 We do arrest rice, oil and the like.
11:26 And we have a number of informations that are,
11:29 you know, Togo is now decongesting their port.
11:32 So a lot of vehicles are likely to come in
11:35 and we are trying our best.
11:38 - The GRA is undertaking an evaluation
11:40 to determine the penalties and duties
11:42 to be paid on the mobile phones.
11:45 - You're watching the Marketplace.
11:51 Time now for the Joy Business Summit.
11:54 Today, putting the spotlight on cyber attacks.
11:57 The global cybersecurity landscape
11:59 has seen increased threats in recent years.
12:02 Cyber criminals took advantage of misaligned networks
12:05 as businesses moved to remote work
12:07 during and after the pandemic.
12:09 Now in 2020 malware attacks increased by 358%
12:14 compared to 2019.
12:16 Cyber attacks globally increased by 125% through 2021
12:21 with a seemingly increasing trend in recent times.
12:25 Now, today on the Joy Business Summit,
12:27 we want to take a look at why businesses
12:29 should be concerned about building cyber resilient systems,
12:33 whether attacks are joined in studio by Nii-Jan Mensah,
12:36 who is principal of Cybersecurity in Nuwari.
12:39 Great to have you in studio with us to talk about this today.
12:42 And I mean, reading those statistics is very worrying.
12:46 It's very alarming.
12:47 Why are we seeing an increase in cyber security
12:51 or cyber attacks?
12:52 And why should businesses be concerned about cybersecurity?
12:56 - Okay, thank you very much.
12:57 Before I touch on that,
12:58 we need to understand what is cybersecurity.
13:01 To a layperson, cybersecurity is just application.
13:04 You're applying technology,
13:06 you're applying the processes that you have,
13:08 you are applying the procedure and also people
13:12 so that you can what, manage the negative attacks
13:16 that will occur within your organization
13:19 so that your organization can keep on embarking
13:21 on the mission that they seek to achieve.
13:24 And also the organization to meet
13:25 its organizational objectives.
13:27 Now, the reason why we have increasing cyber attacks
13:30 recently has to do with a lot of digitalization
13:34 some people call digital transformation.
13:38 Now, according to Forbes, in 2001,
13:42 we have 10% of business asset being digitized.
13:50 Okay, and this resulted in cyber crime,
13:53 we have a cyber crime loss of $178 million.
13:56 Now, in 2019, we have about 85% of business assets
14:03 digitized, so you could see that a lot of assets
14:07 have been moved into the cyberspace or the internet.
14:10 And this resulted in the cyber crime loss
14:13 of $3.5 billion.
14:15 - Wow.
14:16 - So you could see, the more that you move your asset
14:19 into the digital space,
14:21 the more that you are prone to what?
14:23 Cyber attacks, because we have a lot of touch points
14:27 that these attackers can use to attack you.
14:31 - Okay, and so let's talk a bit more about the threats.
14:34 I mean, you talk about points that the attackers use,
14:38 what are the threats to look out for?
14:40 - Okay, now, based on the kind of work
14:44 that I provide for other companies,
14:47 some of the threats that I've seen,
14:48 I just want to contextualize it in Ghana.
14:51 Some of the threats that I've seen so far
14:52 has to do with ransomware attack.
14:55 So what the ransomware attack does is,
14:57 it's a form of malware.
14:59 To a layperson, what the ransomware attack does is that,
15:02 it will disrupt the business processes
15:04 that are running on the system.
15:06 So you have a business process,
15:07 and these business processes are running on the system.
15:10 And if there's disruption in the business processes,
15:12 it means that there'll be loss of money.
15:14 But the ransomware people, what they will do,
15:16 the ransomware attack will say,
15:17 "Okay, I've disrupted the business processes
15:19 "that are sitting on a particular system,
15:21 "but I need to demand a ransom from you.
15:23 "And for you to pay me,
15:25 "I want you to pay me using, what, Bitcoin."
15:27 - Wow.
15:28 - Okay, because I don't want to be, what, treached.
15:31 Okay, another threat that we've seen
15:34 based on the kind of work that we do for companies in Ghana
15:37 has to do with something called denial of service.
15:39 Ransomware attack is similar to denial of service.
15:42 You know, the ransomware attack is asking for a ransom.
15:45 But denial of service is,
15:46 we are disrupting the business processes.
15:49 So you have a lot of financial people.
15:51 I mean, it can be a financial institution,
15:52 it can be a small and medium-sized company.
15:55 They have business processes
15:56 that are sitting on a particular process.
15:58 So the moment I disrupt that particular business process,
16:00 it means that you cannot deliver services to our customers.
16:03 Then we see that we have a denial of service.
16:06 Another thing that is occurring a lot in Ghana
16:09 is data breaches, but we don't normally report it.
16:12 Now, data breaches, we have data breaches that occur,
16:15 but we have several categories of them.
16:17 We have data breaches that will result to
16:21 maybe you doing something that is accidental.
16:24 So someone comes unintentionally,
16:25 someone does something, and there will be a breach.
16:28 We have a data breach also that occurs that is intentional.
16:33 And we have data breaches that occurs
16:35 through social engineering.
16:36 Some people call it corny.
16:38 So corny is really, really big now,
16:41 whereby psychological manipulation of people
16:44 into divulging information so that they can use it
16:47 against the organization
16:48 so that they can achieve their objectives.
16:50 - Yeah, I'm gonna ask you about
16:52 what businesses can do to be resilient.
16:55 I mean, against these attacks.
16:57 But I also wanted to find out first, though,
16:59 what kind of damage these things have on businesses,
17:02 these attacks.
17:03 - It has profound damage to companies.
17:08 But interestingly, you know, in the Western world,
17:10 cybersecurity is a business issue.
17:13 So at the board level, they discuss cybersecurity stuff.
17:16 But in that part of the world, in Ghana,
17:19 Bank of Ghana is pushing for it.
17:22 So now it's gaining some kind of attention.
17:27 But we are not still there.
17:30 People don't see cybersecurity risk
17:32 as what a business issue.
17:33 But you have fines, okay?
17:36 You have reputational damage.
17:38 So it's huge.
17:40 So it's hard time that business starts seeing
17:43 cybersecurity as what a business issue
17:46 and start discussing it at the board level.
17:49 Let me give you a status, please.
17:51 Target, a retail company in Ghana,
17:53 a retail company in US, okay, they got attacked.
17:57 And when they got attacked,
17:58 what happened was that they did some kind of analysis
18:01 and they realized, okay,
18:02 they need to fire seven of their board members.
18:07 So they fire seven of their board members,
18:08 out of the 10, they fire seven out of them.
18:11 And also they fired Jassiso.
18:13 Then, after that particular instance,
18:17 people start taking cybersecurity seriously
18:20 in the Western world.
18:21 So in the Western world, it's a very big thing.
18:23 You can lose your job.
18:24 But in that part of the world,
18:25 I mean, now the Bank of Ghana is trying to force things.
18:30 - Yeah, and we don't have a choice
18:31 but to pay attention to it
18:32 because we are going digital
18:33 and that means we are at risk of such attacks going forward.
18:37 So what can businesses do to build resilient systems
18:42 that sort of curb these attacks
18:45 or just totally prevent them?
18:47 - Okay, before we talk about the resilient aspect,
18:49 we need to know what resilience is
18:51 when we talk about cyber resilience.
18:53 Now, when we talk about cyber resilience,
18:55 what we are talking about,
18:56 the organization or you as a business,
18:59 your ability to respond rapidly, okay?
19:03 Now, when you respond rapidly,
19:04 so I'm giving it in a series of categories.
19:07 When you respond rapidly,
19:09 how can you restore to a very good state?
19:12 Now, when you restore to a very good state,
19:14 how can you manage the negative outcome
19:16 that will come from it?
19:18 And the last but not least is how to ensure
19:21 that you do something called lessons learned
19:23 so that you prevent that particular incident
19:24 from reoccurring.
19:26 So based on the categories that I've explained,
19:28 you could see that for us to respond rapidly,
19:31 we need to put policies,
19:32 we need to put processes in place
19:34 and business leaders need to start taking
19:37 cyber security work seriously.
19:39 They need to put in a lot of money,
19:41 they need to invest in people,
19:42 you need to get what, competent person
19:44 to manage your cyber security program
19:47 within your organization, okay?
19:49 Now, you have business continuity,
19:50 all these things are a little bit technical,
19:52 but in a nutshell, that is it.
19:55 But when you come to manage a negative outcome,
19:57 what kind of controls will you put in place
20:00 so that you can prevent these people?
20:02 Because, you know, we cannot have 100% security.
20:05 So definitely all the controls that you put in place,
20:08 and people bypass through all the controls.
20:11 But when they bypass through all the controls,
20:13 your ability to respond quickly
20:15 and also do some kind of lessons learned,
20:17 so that these incidents you are really prepared for
20:21 when they come back.
20:22 - So that's what it means to be resilient?
20:24 - Yes, so based on these four categories,
20:27 you need to comply with all these four categories
20:31 for you to be called, for you to be said
20:33 that your organization is resilient.
20:35 - So any other things they can do to,
20:38 I mean, build their systems and prevent cyber?
20:41 - You know, a lot of, you focus on system.
20:45 Okay, like what I said,
20:46 you have all the technology in place to protect people,
20:50 okay, or to protect the attackers
20:51 from attacking your organization.
20:54 But if you don't have the ability to respond
20:56 and recover quickly, and also you don't do lessons learned,
21:00 you could see that these activities are people-based.
21:04 Okay, a lot of us focus on the technology aspect.
21:07 We forget to rely on the people.
21:10 That's why I said, you know,
21:11 you need to ensure that you get qualified
21:13 and, what, competent person
21:15 to manage your cybersecurity program.
21:17 And some people also try to do some kind of awareness,
21:20 also doing some kind of training in the organization.
21:23 Yeah.
21:24 - Nidjane Mensah, happy to have you in the studio
21:26 to talk about cybersecurity.
21:28 I don't know if we are going to have you tomorrow,
21:29 but I'll confirm that.
21:30 But hey, it's good to have your insight
21:32 into cybersecurity, cyber attacks, cyber threats,
21:35 and I'm hoping that businesses that are tuning in
21:38 are going to make some really important decisions.
21:40 I appreciate your time.
21:41 Principal of Cybersecurity in Ovari, Nidjane Mensah,
21:44 appreciate your time in the studio.
21:45 Well, so a report by GSM Association shows that in Africa,
21:49 online retail as a proportion of total retail sales
21:52 remains much lower than in other regions around the world,
21:56 indicating that the continent's MSMEs
21:59 are not fully leveraging e-commerce opportunity for goods.
22:02 The report was launched on the sidelines of MWC Kigali
22:05 during an event hosted by African Business.
22:07 So here to discuss this,
22:09 Henry Coppola, lead for Eyes of Africa.
22:11 Good afternoon to you, Henry.
22:13 So tell me a bit more about the report,
22:15 what the report says about e-commerce in Africa,
22:18 and does the outcome surprise you?
22:19 - Much, so I mean, generally,
22:24 the report was sort of carried out
22:26 looking a bit around e-commerce
22:29 and its effect and impact on commerce,
22:33 generally in Africa.
22:34 So we're looking at how businesses
22:37 are sort of taking advantage of e-commerce
22:40 and are making regular use of the platforms
22:42 to basically enhance their digital footprint
22:44 and also enhance sales
22:46 when it comes down to digital platforms.
22:49 And generally, it had digged into,
22:52 given Africa, a very low point
22:54 when it comes down to how e-commerce
22:57 is being used by SMEs, MSMEs,
23:00 generally in Ghana, in Africa,
23:02 I think Nigeria and South Africa as well,
23:04 based on the report.
23:06 - What are the teething problems?
23:08 What are the challenges?
23:09 - I mean, if you're looking at the challenges,
23:12 you would have realized that,
23:13 I mean, we're looking at limited financial resources,
23:15 which comes to most of these e-commerce platforms.
23:18 I mean, generally, I've been in the e-commerce sector
23:20 and it's very expensive running an e-commerce platform.
23:23 Generally, from end to end,
23:25 it basically requires quite a lot of resources
23:28 when it comes down to it,
23:29 and much more financial resources
23:31 because you sort of have to,
23:33 sometimes even gets to have warehouses available
23:36 to stock some of the items.
23:37 So it's much easier to have stock available
23:40 to do deliveries as well.
23:42 Generally, much of the resources
23:43 happens to be human resources as well,
23:46 digital skills, when it comes down to
23:48 being able to be online,
23:51 fulfill orders and all of those things.
23:53 Again, sometimes even looking at
23:55 the cybersecurity point of it,
23:57 those skills come into play.
23:59 How do you ensure that you're having
24:01 quite a number of people going through the processes
24:04 without having to go through fraudulent activities?
24:07 That comes into it.
24:08 Generally, we also have some regulatory gaps that come in,
24:13 generally for some of the businesses
24:15 to be able to have a full operation.
24:17 I mean, in Ghana, we're sort of looking at
24:20 how e-commerce basically kicks into
24:23 some of the regulatory points
24:24 in terms of the policies that are available
24:26 to guide the processes from end to end.
24:28 We're looking at the poor implementation
24:30 of legislation as well.
24:32 Sometimes when issues, when they arise
24:35 in terms of content, in terms of fraud,
24:37 in terms of even data protection that comes in.
24:42 I mean, it's all the poor implementation of the laws
24:44 relatively detest people from sort of
24:47 engaging in digital trade.
24:49 I mean, if you're having issues that you've fought,
24:53 you have been frauded on an e-commerce platform
24:56 or on social media sales.
24:58 I mean, and you don't even have to,
25:00 you have to go through a very tedious process
25:01 to recover your money.
25:03 I mean, it becomes very difficult
25:05 to sort of engage more in there.
25:06 And I think that digital payments
25:08 has also had a very slow pace
25:10 when it comes out to online sales.
25:12 Major of it I can say is challenges
25:14 when it comes down to logistics and delivery as well.
25:17 - So what can be done?
25:18 What can MSMEs do to leverage
25:21 the e-commerce opportunity for growth?
25:24 How can they be helped?
25:25 - I mean, generally, first of all,
25:28 you're getting into a platform,
25:29 you might not necessarily have all the skills and knowledge.
25:33 And so the very first thing is, I think that reskilling.
25:36 Generally, people could have their stuff being looked into,
25:41 taking some courses to sort of understand
25:43 how to run a whole process online,
25:45 understanding how accounting processes
25:47 or logistic processes, fulfillment processes
25:51 happens generally on e-commerce platforms
25:53 and being effective on e-commerce platforms as well.
25:56 So that becomes a very first point.
25:57 I think that one of the things
25:58 the government could do is to really look at
26:01 some level of effective policies
26:03 that are going to be available.
26:05 And one of the policies that is deterring people
26:06 from sort of pushing in online is sort of the e-levies
26:11 and the taxes that comes in with buying online.
26:16 And generally, if you're looking at
26:17 how those ones impact on the sales,
26:20 I think that it also gives a very negative impact.
26:23 We could look at policies in terms of
26:25 how to use some of the taxes
26:26 when you're sort of doing online sales
26:28 and online platform, what you call it, purchases.
26:31 I think it comes to help a bit
26:33 in terms of our financial platform adaptations
26:36 where it could help in the adaptation
26:39 of e-commerce platform generally.
26:42 - All right, Henry Kobla,
26:43 thank you so much, lead for Eyes of Africa.
26:46 Always appreciate your insight here on the marketplace.
26:49 And that's our program, everyone.
26:50 There is more news on our website,
26:52 mygioneline.com/business.
26:54 Top story there, outlook of African economies in 2024,
26:58 signal gradual strengthening.
27:00 That's according to the IMF.
27:01 You can read more about that, mygionline.com/business.
27:05 We'll be back same time tomorrow.
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