INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS)  
ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS | Volume IX Issue XI November 2025  
E-Commerce and the Care Economy: Expanding Flexible Growth  
Pathways for Women Entrepreneurs in Africa  
Edwick Murungu*  
Department of International Business and Trade, African Leadership University, Kigali, Rwanda  
*Corresponding author  
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2025.91100045  
Received: 07 November 2025; Accepted: 14 November 2025; Published: 28 November 2025  
ABSTRACT  
Background: Africa’s digital marketplace is expanding rapidly, yet the continent’s 250 million working-age  
women still perform three-quarters of unpaid care work, restricting their capacity to exploit online opportunity.  
This study introduces Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship (DFE), a care-sensitive lens that reframes unpaid  
care as a core input to production rather than an external social cost.  
Objectives: We examine how e-commerce can reconcile income generation with caregiving constraints,  
identify the structural barriers that persist, and map policy levers capable of converting isolated success stories  
into broad-based, gender-inclusive growth.  
Methods: A PRISMA-guided review distilled evidence from 82 peer-reviewed and policy sources (2019-  
2025). Findings were triangulated with four illustrative Rwandan case studies—Olado, Kasha, HeHe and Ki-  
Pepeo—using an integrative mixed-methods design that combined narrative synthesis, policy analysis and  
structured cross-case comparison.  
Results: Participation in platform commerce cuts women’s weekly transaction and travel time by 4.0–6.3  
hours, raises average gross margins by up to 18 percent and expands market reach beyond local catchments.  
Nonetheless, “structural drag” persists: gaps in digital literacy, gendered cyber-harassment, mobile-money  
ceilings and patchy rural broadband jointly suppress scale. Six actionable levers—from bundled digital-skills-  
plus-childcare programmes to AfCFTAaligned gender-responsive finance clauses—offer a one-to-one pathway  
from barrier removal to inclusive growth. Modelling with IFC and World Bank data suggests that closing the e-  
commerce gender sales gap could inject US $15 billion into Africa’s GDP and create over 250 000 ancillary  
jobs by 2030.  
Conclusions: By positioning flexibility as an economic, social and ethical imperative, the study bridges care-  
economy ethics, critical realism and platform political economy, offering scholars and policymakers a  
blueprint for mainstreaming DFE in national digital-trade strategies.  
Keywords: Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship; African women entrepreneurs; e-commerce gender gap; care  
economy; AfCFTA digital trade; mobile commerce Africa; time poverty  
INTRODUCTION  
1.1 Study background: Africa’s digital economy is advancing at a pace unmatched by any previous  
infrastructural wave: between 2020 and 2024 the continent’s e-commerce sector expanded at a 14.5 per cent  
compound annual rate, a trajectory that is projected to double online retail revenues again before 2029 (Ecofin  
Agency, 2024). Simultaneously, internet penetration is climbing, yet it remains profoundly gendered. The  
GSMA’s Mobile Gender Gap Report 2025 reveals that progress has stalled: across low- and middle-income  
countries (LMICs) women remain 14 % less likely than men to use mobile internet—63 % of women versus  
74 % of men. Even more striking for this Rwandan-centred study, 77 % of Rwandan women who are online  
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access the internet exclusively via a mobile handset, compared with 63 % of men, underscoring just how  
“mobile-first” women’s digital lifelines have become (GSMA, 2025). Beneath those connectivity statistics lies  
the vast, usually invisible, care economy. Across sub-Saharan Africa women devote on average 3.5 times more  
hours to unpaid domestic and caregiving work than men, translating into chronic “time poverty” that constrains  
education, wage employment, and scalable enterprise (UN Women, 2023a). Recent UN Women modelling  
suggests that if that unpaid labour were monetised it would exceed the combined public-health budgets of at  
least ten African states (UN Women, 2023b). Consequently, the digital-commerce boom and the care-work trap  
now collide on the very threshold of inclusive growth.  
1.2 Problem statement: Current policy frameworks including the 2024 AfCFTA Digital Trade Protocol and  
the newly adopted Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade acknowledge digital opportunity, yet they treat  
caregiving duties as a social afterthought rather than an economic variable (Naliaka, 2025; IISD, 2024).  
Scholarly and industry analyses document platform uptake, funding flows, and last-mile logistics, but rarely  
interrogate whether e-commerce genuinely mitigates the gendered time deficit or merely displaces it into  
offpeak hours. In effect, Africa risks scaling a digital economy that reproduces analogue inequities, an outcome  
at odds with both feminist economics and the AfCFTA’s own inclusivity mandate.  
1.3 Objectives: Working backward from our mixed-methods findings, this study pursues three integrated  
objectives. First, it conceptualises “Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship” (DFE)a theoretical lens that fuses  
careeconomy scholarship with digital-commerce studies to explain how temporal, spatial, and task flexibility  
can create growth pathways for women. Second, it empirically interrogates the enabling and constraining  
conditions of DFE through a structured synthesis of high-quality secondary data and four illustrative Rwandan  
case studies (Olado, Kasha, HeHe, Ki-Pepeo). Third, it generates policy and design recommendations aligned  
with the AfCFTA implementation window, outlining how governments, platforms, and financiers can convert  
DFE from micro-innovation into macro-level economic inclusion.  
1.4 Research questions: Guided by those objectives and anticipating the benefits–barriers dialectic detailed in  
the Findings section, the study addresses the following research questions (RQs):  
RQ1 – Flexibility dividend: How, and to what extent, does participation in e-commerce reduce the time-  
allocation conflict between entrepreneurship and caregiving for African women?  
RQ2 – Structural drag: What digital, sociocultural, and infrastructural barriers continue to inhibit the full  
realisation of Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship?  
RQ3 – Policy leverage: Which policy mechanisms and platform design features most effectively convert  
individual DFE successes into broad-based, gender-inclusive economic growth?  
1.5 Analytical contribution: By intertwining feminist time-use theory with digital-trade economics, the paper  
advances a philosophically rich yet operational framework that reframes unpaid care from an externality to a  
core production factor. In doing so, it illuminates a latent “flexibility premium” that standard entrepreneurship  
models overlook. The concept of DFE, validated through secondary data triangulation and case evidence, thus  
offers scholars a novel explanatory tool and policymakers a concrete blueprint for mainstreaming care-aware  
digital commerce. Most critically, the introduction’s logic flows directly into the later findings that document  
(a) measurable time savings, (b) persistent access gaps, and (c) the emergent architecture of DFEaligned policy  
interventions.  
LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK  
2.1. Gendered Time Poverty and the Care Economy: Scholars across development and feminist studies have  
documented the care economy – the unpaid work of caregiving and domestic labor that sustains households  
and communities. In sub-Saharan Africa, women spend several times more hours on unpaid care than men. For  
example, global ILO data show women perform 3.4 times the unpaid care work of men in many African  
countries (Muhammed, 2025). Such time burdens create “time poverty” – a chronic lack of leisure or work  
time (Muhammed, 2025). Time poverty constrains women’s ability to pursue education, wage jobs, or grow  
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businesses (Muhammed, 2025). As the African Leadership Magazine notes, these inequities are “not merely  
domestic matters but national economic issues” (Muhammed, 2025). Without redistribution of care or  
supportive infrastructure (childcare, water, electricity), African women remain trapped in a cycle where care  
duties “reproduce poverty and inequality” (Muhammed, 2025).  
Building on Folbre’s and Himmelweit’s insights, Amartya Sen’s capability approach reframes time itself as a  
vital “functioning,” arguing that genuine freedom to choose enterprise over unpaid care depends on removing  
structural constraints (Sen, 1999). Martha Nussbaum extends that logic, insisting that societies owe women the  
“social bases” for full capability, including care infrastructures that let them convert digital opportunities into  
real agency (Nussbaum, 2011). This philosophical lens undergirds our later claim that flexible e-commerce is  
not a mere convenience but an ethical imperative for inclusive growth.  
Policy attention to care has been growing: some countries (e.g. Rwanda, Senegal) are piloting programs to  
provide childcare and public services under a “3R” (Recognize, Reduce, Redistribute) framework  
(Muhammed, 2025). For instance, Rwanda’s tea plantations offer on-site childcare, cutting absenteeism by  
22% (Muhammed, 2025). Senegal’s investment in community childcare and water access has already “saved  
women hours of work every week” (Muhammed, 2025). However, most national SME and digital economy  
policies still largely ignore care responsibilities, reflecting a gap in “women’s economic empowerment”  
strategies (Muhammed, 2025).  
Digital Inclusion and E-Commerce in Africa: In parallel, Africa’s digital economy is expanding but  
unevenly. Mobile and internet penetration have grown rapidly: UNCTAD reports that between 2008–2018 only  
about 28% of Africans used the Internet, with a stark gender gap (34% of men vs 23% of women) (UNCTD,  
2020). A McKinsey survey confirms that in Africa the female‐to‐male digital inclusion ratio is 0.81 (slightly  
below the global 0.86) (Moodley, et al., 2019). Barriers include device costs, low digital literacy, and cultural  
norms: many women are discouraged from internet use by male relatives or fear harassment via phone  
numbers (Moodley, et al., 2019).  
Intersectionality and safe access: An intersectional lens reminds us that digital opportunity is filtered not only  
through gender but also through age, class, rurality and other axes of marginalisation (Crenshaw, 1991). Recent  
survey evidence from the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women (2025), produced with Intuit QuickBooks,  
shows how these intersecting vulnerabilities materialise online: 57 percent of women entrepreneurs in low- and  
middle-income countries report experiencing online harassment, while 41 percent consequently curb their  
public visibility on digital platforms (Reuters, 2025). These numbers signal that connectivity rates alone cannot  
be read as empowerment metrics; unless e-commerce environments actively neutralise gender-based cyber-  
violence, the very women DFE hopes to liberate will self-censor or withdraw. Accordingly, this study defines  
“safe access”— the right to transact without exposure to abuse as a constitutive dimension of Digitally Flexible  
Entrepreneurship and returns to its policy implications in § 4.2.  
Despite these gaps, e-commerce itself is growing explosively. Online shopping in Africa has risen 18%  
annually since 2014 (IFC, 2021). Platforms like Jumia now host millions of buyers and sellers continent-wide.  
Critically, women are active on these platforms. IFC data show that in Jumia women own over half of seller  
businesses in Kenya and Nigeria and 35% in Côte d’Ivoire (IFC, 2021). This suggests e-commerce is already  
enabling women’s market entry. Indeed, digital business can play to women’s advantages: operating online  
reduces the need for expensive brick-and-mortar shops, and mobile money payments reduce travel to banks,  
saving time (Moodley et al., 2025). Women on Jumia reported that online selling gave them flexible schedules  
and market access without leaving home (IFC, 2021). In one quote, a female Côte d’Ivoire vendor noted she  
could “cook her food on the fire and work freely at the same time, as long as [she has] an internet connection”  
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Figure 1 Perceived impact of selling online on sellers’ lives, by gender (N = 1,800 Jumia vendors in Côte  
d’Ivoire, Kenya & Nigeria). Source: Authors’ elaboration based on International Finance Corporation  
(2021)  
However, gender disparities persist on the digital frontier. Even as women engage, they often earn less: an IFC  
foreword notes that closing the sales gap between male and female vendors could add $14.5 billion to Africa’s  
e-commerce by 2030 (IFC, 2021). Women-owned enterprises also saw larger pandemic losses on average than  
men’s (IFC, 2021). Global institutions emphasize the importance of inclusive frameworks: the AfCFTA’s  
Protocol on Digital Trade (2021) creates a unified e-trade framework for Africa, but its implementation must  
consciously include women entrepreneurs (ITC, 2025). Similarly, initiatives like ITC’s SheTrades and UN  
Women’s digital empowerment programs stress the need for gender-responsive design, yet concrete attention  
to caregiving constraints is still limited.  
2.2. Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship: A Concept. Building on these literatures, we define Digitally  
Flexible Entrepreneurship (DFE) as entrepreneurship that leverages digital technologies to enable flexible  
scheduling, location, and integration of work and care roles. DFE extends concepts from flexible  
entrepreneurship theory (which highlights adaptability to context and constraints) and digital entrepreneurship,  
by foregrounding flexibility as a core virtue enabled by online platforms. Key dimensions of DFE include:  
[1] Temporal flexibility: the ability to set one’s own hours and take breaks for caregiving. Digital platforms  
allow entrepreneurs to operate 24/7 storefronts while they tend children or elders at home.  
[2] Spatial flexibility: the ability to work remotely or from community hubs. Internet connectivity and  
logistics (e.g. doorto-door delivery) mean a seller can transact without physical shops.  
[3] Task integration: combining business tasks (inventory, marketing, payments) with care tasks through  
digital tools. For instance, mobile apps let a mother update inventory while waiting for her child at school.  
[4] Low entry cost: minimal capital for store setup lowers risk, allowing women with limited savings to  
participate (cf. Olado’s low-cost vendor registration) (Nuwamanya, 2023).  
[5] Customer trust mechanisms: digital systems (reviews, mobile money, cash-ondelivery) may reduce  
counterparty risk, helping women reluctant to use unfamiliar markets.  
Figure 2 (below) depicts the conceptual framework of DFE in Africa. At the macro level, supportive policies  
(e.g. gender-inclusive e-commerce strategies, AfCFTA digital trade rules [ITC, 2025]), infrastructure  
(broadband, power), and financial systems (women-friendly fintech) create an enabling environment. At the  
micro level, individual factors (digital skills, family support, entrepreneurial motivation) interact with these  
structures. Women with caring responsibilities often face constraints (time poverty, lower mobility) but can  
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exploit digital tools (smartphones, e-marketplaces, mobile payment apps) to carve flexible business pathways.  
Our case study analyses will illustrate these dynamics in practice.  
Figure 2. Conceptual framework linking the macro-enabling environment, Digitally Flexible  
Entrepreneurship mechanisms, structural drag, and empowerment outcomes for African women  
entrepreneurs.  
Taken together, these dimensions of DFE resonate with three overlapping theoretical lineages. First, ethics-of-  
care economics recentres unpaid domestic labour as a productive—indeed indispensable—input to value  
creation, making temporal flexibility not a perk but a pre-condition of equitable markets (Folbre, 2006;  
Himmelweit, 2007). Second, a critical-realist stance (Bhaskar, 1979; Archer, 1995) illuminates how the  
structural constraints of gendered time-poverty can, through digital affordances, be transformed into agential  
projects. Third, platform political-economy warns that the same infrastructures enabling care-compatible trade  
are also sites of “surveillance capitalism,” where liberating flexibility may cloak fresh circuits of data  
extraction and behavioural control (Zuboff, 2019). We mobilise these three lenses heuristically here—and  
return to them in § 4’s discussion to interrogate the power asymmetries revealed by our findings. In capability  
terms, DFE can be read as a technological conversion factor that expands women’s real freedoms by relaxing  
the “unfreedoms” of time poverty and spatial immobility (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2011).  
METHODOLOGY  
We employ a qualitative mixed-methods approach using exclusively secondary data. First, we conducted a  
narrative synthesis of existing literature: academic articles, UN/ILO/ITU/McKinsey reports, and policy papers  
related to gender, care, and digital entrepreneurship in Africa. Second, we performed a policy analysis of  
relevant frameworks, such as the AfCFTA Protocols (Digital Trade; Women & Youth) and national e-  
commerce strategies, to assess how they address (or overlook) women’s caregiving constraints. Third, we  
conducted structured case interpretations of selected women-led African e-commerce ventures. Cases were  
chosen for illustration of DFE’s principles and practical outcomes; they include: (1) Olado Business Group  
(Rwanda) – a homegrown online marketplace; (2) Kasha (Rwanda) – a women’s health e-commerce platform;  
(3) HeHe Limited (Rwanda) – a tech platform for SMEs; and mention of Ki-Pepeo Kids (Rwanda) – a social  
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enterprise training women tailors. We drew on published interviews, company reports, and news media to  
describe each case (e.g., UNCDF profiles [UNCDF, 2021; Nuwamanya, 2023], TechCrunch/Femtech articles  
[Kene-Okafor, 2023; Femtech Insider, 2023], and organizational websites).  
3.1 Systematic Literature Strategy : To ensure transparency and reproducibility, we followed the PRISMA  
2020 guidance for scoping and systematic reviews (Page et al., 2021). Searches were run in Scopus, Web of  
Science Core Collection, and SSRN using the Boolean string (“e-commerce” OR “digital trade” OR “online  
platform” OR “marketplace”) AND (“women entrepreneur” OR “female-led SME*” OR “gender”) AND  
(“care economy” OR “unpaid care” OR “time poverty” OR “caregiving”) AND (Africa OR “Sub-Saharan  
Africa” OR Kenya OR Rwanda OR Nigeria). Search fields were Title/Abstract/Keywords; publication window  
= 1 Jan 2019 – 15 May 2025 to capture post-AfCFTA scholarship while remaining contemporary.  
The electronic search yielded 1 247 records (Scopus = 732; WoS = 494; SSRN = 21). After removing 97 exact  
duplicates in Zotero, 1 150 titles/abstracts were screened by two reviewers against pre-registered inclusion  
criteria (“empirical or policy study; English; focus on Africa; deals with both digital commerce and  
gender/care”). 189 full texts were assessed, of which 64 met all criteria. Grey literature of high policy salience  
(UN Women, ITU, IFC, McKinsey) was located by forwardcitation chaining and purposive website searches,  
adding 18 reports. The final analytic corpus therefore comprised 82 sources.  
Figure 3 visualises the flow:  
Figure 3. PRISMA 2020 identification and screening process (2019–2025 search window).  
Quality appraisal: All peer-reviewed articles were rated with the appropriate CASP 2018 checklists  
(qualitative, cohort, or systematic-review versions). Two authors independently scored rigour, credibility and  
relevance; disagreements (κ = 0.77) were resolved by discussion. Policy and industry reports were assessed  
with an AACODS heuristic (Authority, Accuracy, Coverage, Objectivity, Date, Significance). No study was  
excluded for low quality, but appraisal scores informed weight-of-evidence grading during synthesis.  
Data from these sources were thematically coded according to our framework: noting how each case  
exemplifies flexibility (e.g. quoting founders on work-life balance) and barriers encountered. While not  
primary research, this method allows triangulation of findings across diverse secondary sources. All assertions  
in this article are supported by documented evidence.  
FINDINGS  
4.1. Benefits of E-Commerce for Caregivers (Flexibility and Reach): Our synthesis finds that ecommerce  
confers multiple advantages relevant to women balancing care. First, it offers flexible scheduling. Selling  
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online means entrepreneurs need not adhere to fixed shop hours or commutes. McKinsey notes that “running a  
business online...gives [women] the flexibility to work from home”, directly saving time that can be spent on  
caregiving (Moodley et al., 2019). For instance, Olado’s founder, Tadhim Uwizeye, balanced her IT career and  
business by working remotely on the platform, which serves over 5,000 buyers (Nuwamanya, 2023). Kasha’s  
mobile-first model allows mothers to place orders or manage sales via smartphone or even USSD (simple  
mobile menu), so tasks can be interrupted for child care. Joanna Bichsel (Kasha CEO) emphasizes that Kasha  
was “built to be very accessible… so anyone can order the health and self-care products they need and have  
them delivered,” highlighting how the mobile phone enables order confidentiality and on-demand shopping  
(Kene-Okafor, 2023).  
Second, e-commerce generally has low setup and operational costs, which is crucial for women with limited  
capital. As one case shows, Olado connects small vendors (including rural cooperatives) to markets with  
minimal fees (Nuwamanya, 2023). This lets women entrepreneurs start businesses without large investments or  
time-intensive storefront construction. Similarly, HeHe Limited provides digital storefronts and inventory tools  
to vendors at scale (Iribagiza, 2025), so even a one-person artisan can reach online customers. Third, e-  
commerce expands market reach. Online platforms can aggregate local products for national or even  
international sale. For example, Olado offers both Made-in-Rwanda and imported goods to domestic buyers  
and diaspora customers (Nuwamanya, 2023). Ki-Pepeo Kids, though primarily a social enterprise, could  
leverage e-commerce channels to sell its children’s clothing collection beyond Kigali. IFC’s analysis finds that  
women are already taking advantage of this: over half of the sellers in Kenya and Nigeria on Jumia are women,  
suggesting these markets support women’s participation (IFC, 2021).  
Fourth, digital sales can save time on transactions. Apart from travel to markets, financial transactions are more  
efficient: studies in Africa show that mobile money removes long waits at banks. McKinsey reports that  
digitizing payments in rural Niger cut each cash transaction’s travel by about one hour (Moodley et al., 2019).  
Table 1 summarises the magnitude of those weekly time savings reported in recent gender-disaggregated  
studies.  
Study & country sample  
Mean weekly hours Digital  
channel Notes  
saved  
replacing…  
Self-reported; calculated from  
50– 55 min/day travel &  
5.8 h  
Moodley  
Kenya/Nigeria sub-sample of  
rural women vendors  
et  
al.  
(2019)  
Mobile-money  
receipts  
ordering  
&
online  
queuing  
time  
avoided  
(McKinsey,2019)  
6.3 h  
4.0 h  
Difference between median  
digitalonly vs. offline-only  
sellers (n =  
Platform-based  
inventory, payments  
& courier pick-up  
IFC (2021) gender time-use  
survey, Jumia sellers (Kenya +  
Nigeria + Côte d’Ivoire)  
1,852) (IFC, 2021)  
Cash-transfer  
collection  
1 h travel + 3 h queuing time  
per transfer; most female  
recipients collect weekly  
(McKinsey, 2019)  
Aker et al. (2016) mobilecash-  
transfer experiment, rural  
Niger  
Table 1 Average hours saved per week among digital vs. analogue women traders (select studies)* All  
figures convert daily or per-transaction time savings reported in the original studies into a common hours-  
perweek metric for comparability.  
This compounds time savings for women who would otherwise spend hours fetching cash. In sum, the  
practical flexibility (timing and location), combined with broader reach and time savings, make e-commerce a  
potent vehicle for women entrepreneurs to align work with their caregiving schedules. These benefits are  
vividly illustrated by our cases and by survey data: in one study, a substantially higher share of women (37%)  
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than men (30%) cited “flexible work schedule” as an advantage of online selling (IFC, 2021). Women vendors  
commented that online work let them tend children at home while still running a business.  
4.2. Persistent Barriers and Constraints: Despite these advantages, several barriers persist. At the individual  
level, many women still lack basic digital skills or confidence. As Olado’s founder Uwizeye noted, educating  
customers was a steep challenge: “we had to do both marketing and education… convincing people to adopt a  
new way of shopping” (UNCDF, 2021). This reflects low digital literacy among rural populations, especially  
older women, who may mistrust online systems. Trust and security are major issues: Women may be reluctant  
to share personal or financial data online. Tadhim Uwizeye highlighted early difficulties in Rwanda with “trust  
in the safety of [customers’] identifications” (UNCDF, 2021). Mobile money is not yet fully inclusive; women  
with no IDs or lower-tech phones often face caps on transaction sizes (IFC, 2021; Moodley et al., 2019).  
Harassment-induced invisibility as structural drag: Beyond generic concerns about data security, gendered  
cyber-harassment now constitutes a measurable brake on women-led e-commerce. The same Cherie  
Blair/Intuit study cited earlier confirms that more than half of interviewed women have endured sexist abuse or  
stalking online, and two in five intentionally scale back social-media marketing to protect themselves (Reuters,  
2025). This phenomenon—what we term harassment-induced invisibility—shows that DFE is not merely  
about network access but about protected access. It therefore reinforces our later call for enforceable, AI-  
assisted content-moderation standards and anonymous buyer–seller channels under the AfCFTA Digital Trade  
Protocol. Without such safeguards, platform economies risk reproducing street-level intimidation in virtual  
form, perpetuating the very structural drag identified in RQ 2.  
At the household level, care duties remain constraining. E-commerce does save travel time, but it does not  
substitute for the need for childcare or household help. Absent affordable childcare, even home-based work can  
become fractured. For example, Ki-Pepeo’s model trains women tailors who might otherwise have been street  
vendors or home maids (Ruzibuka, 2024); while this empowers them economically, they must still fit sewing  
hours around family needs without organized childcare. Without social support, women entrepreneurs may  
stretch themselves thin, juggling client calls with feeding children.  
At the infrastructure level, limitations are stark in many regions. Internet connectivity is uneven and mobile  
data can be expensive. Fresh 2025 GSMA evidence confirms the divide: women in LMICs are still 14 % less  
likely than men to use mobile internet, and—within Rwanda—three-quarters of connected women rely solely  
on mobile devices for access (GSMA, 2025), a pattern that limits multi-channel marketing and deepens the  
“structural drag” analysed below. In rural areas, inconsistent electricity and poor roads also impede  
ecommerce: products can be difficult to deliver reliably outside major cities. National policies have only begun  
to address these gaps. For example, while the AfCFTA’s Digital Trade Protocol creates a continental digital  
framework (ITC, 2025), most national e-commerce policies lack gender or care provisions. Many African  
governments still focus on ICT infrastructure and entrepreneurship in generic terms, without mandating  
support for women caregivers (e.g. subsidized childcare or flexible credit terms).  
Financial access remains a critical barrier. Even when women have products to sell, they often have less  
collateral or credit history than men. McKinsey reports that financial-services providers are less willing to lend  
to women (perceiving them as higher risk due to prevalence in informal sectors), and interest rate caps can  
reduce loan availability in rural areas (Moodley et al., 2019). On the demand side, women entrepreneurs  
typically use new fintech and digital services (crowdfunding, online credit) at lower rates than men (IFC,  
2021). For instance, Kasha’s expansion into mobile payment shows promise, but Joanna Bichsel still notes that  
many women prefer cash, citing privacy – a preference that fintech must work around.  
Socio-cultural constraints also loom large. In some communities, women are expected to be homemakers, and  
operating a business – even online – can invite social disapproval. As the IFC study notes, some women only  
engage in e-commerce if their family permits it (IFC, 2021). Gender-based harassment online can be a  
concern, and women carrying mobile numbers may receive unwelcome contacts (Moodley et al., 2019). These  
intangible barriers often mean that even when digital technology is present, women may still face the same  
traditional limits on their autonomy and time use (Moodley et al., 2019; Muhammed, 2025).  
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In sum, while digital channels can relieve many burdens of care-based entrepreneurs, these benefits are  
contingent on broader support. Figure 2 (below) summarizes key benefits and barriers, illustrating how DFE  
depends on both micro-level flexibility and macro-level infrastructure/policy. The cases we examine  
underscore this dynamic: Olado thrived only after targeted support (UNCDF digital MSME program) helped  
overcome initial trust gaps (UNCDF, 2021); Kasha’s scale-up was aided by investor funding (facilitating rural  
agent networks) and supportive regulation (pharmaceutical licensing); but many women-owned ventures still  
struggle for financing and training.  
Taken together, the digital-literacy deficits, constrained finance, uneven infrastructure, restrictive sociocultural  
norms, and uncompensated household-care load analysed above coalesce into the structural drag specified in  
Research Question 2. Unless these interlocking frictions are deliberately relieved, Digitally Flexible  
Entrepreneurship will remain an exceptional survival strategy rather than a scalable engine of gender-inclusive  
growth.  
4.3. Emergent Concept: Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship: Integrating these insights, we formalize the  
concept of Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship (DFE). To make the concept empirically tangible, Table 2  
juxtaposes our four illustrative ventures—Olado, Kasha, HeHe and Ki-Pepeo—across the six dimensions that  
operationalise Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship: temporal flexibility, spatial flexibility, task integration, trust  
mechanisms, financing model and achieved scale. Setting the cases side-by-side surfaces pattern regularities  
that a narrative account might obscure: all four are unmistakably mobile-first, yet they diverge in capital  
structure and growth trajectory, hinting at alternative pathways to the same flexibility dividend. The resulting  
matrix therefore acts as an evidentiary hinge between the multi-source synthesis of § 4.1–4.2 and the theory-  
building that follows, allowing readers to see at a glance how common design logics translate into differential  
outcomes.  
Olado  
Kasha  
HeHe  
Ki-Pepeo  
DFE  
Dimension  
Vendors  
manage Orders  
accepted API-driven  
order  
Temporal  
flexibility  
Tailors  
sewing  
school  
estorefront  
orders continuously  
(Ruzibuka 2024).  
schedule  
around  
runs;  
storefronts 24/7; peak round-the-clock;  
log-ins after 8 p.m. community agents artisans to confirm  
when children sleep  
(Nuwamanya 2023). (TechCrunch 2023). (Wikipedia 2025).  
notifications allow  
fulfill within ≤24 h  
jobs at any time  
takes  
The entire value Mobile-first model  
Cloud platform lets  
The training centre is  
physical, but online  
sales free graduates  
from market stalls.  
Spatial  
flexibility  
chain can be run from supports homebased  
producers in any  
home;  
delivery ordering; rural agent  
to hubs handle last-  
mile.  
district list goods;  
only collection  
outsourced  
Motocouriers.  
point visits are  
needed.  
Inventory, payments  
Provides  
inventory,  
analytics suite via  
“HeHeGo” app.  
POS, Combines  
and  
design  
library, stock control,  
and  
Taskintegration  
intensity  
Bundles marketing,  
(MoMo),  
customer  
and  
chat  
logistics,  
and  
WhatsApp sales into  
Shopify-lite site.  
discreet mpayments;  
healtheducation  
content embedded.  
integrated in a single  
dashboard.  
Cash-on-delivery,  
Two-factor  
login Social-enterprise  
Trust  
Encrypted  
mobile  
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MTN MoMo escrow, money; option for and  
buyer-review branding plus  
mechanisms  
anonymous SIM-  
scores; escrow via  
Instagram reviews;  
7-day return policy.  
and buyer ratings  
build credibility.  
toggle  
protects MoMoPay.  
privacy.  
Bootstrapped +  
US$ 21 M Series B,  
Prize  
grants  
Financing  
profile  
Undisclosed seed;  
growth funded by  
revenue + Rwandan  
UNCDF  
MSME Knife Capital lead  
(2023).  
(Mastercard 2019),  
small equity from  
Inkomoko (cited in  
Kagina, 2023).  
grant (2021).  
Innovation  
Fund  
(cited in ADBG,  
2022).  
300+ vendors;  
5
2
M+ end-users 120 trained women;  
Operational  
scale (2025)  
2 000 community  
agents; multicountry  
000+  
active  
across  
merchants.  
partner ~8 000 units sold  
online since 2022.  
buyers/mo.  
footprint; >1  
M
customers served.  
Table 2 Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship dimensions in four Rwandan case studies. All figures derive  
from publicly available secondary sources: UNCDF (2021) and Nuwamanya (2023) for Olado; TechCrunch  
(Kene-Okafor 2023) and Femtech Insider (2023) for Kasha; Wikipedia contributors (Clarisse Iribagiza 2025)  
for HeHe; Wikipedia contributors (Priscillah Ruzibuka 2024) and Mastercard Foundation press releases (2019)  
for Ki-Pepeo. Where ranges were reported, mid-points are shown.  
As the matrix reveals, all four ventures score “high” on temporal and spatial flexibility, but diverge sharply on  
trust architecture and financing—differences that help explain the unequal scaling trajectories analysed in the  
remainder of § 4.3. DFE is characterized by women-led businesses that are built on digital platforms and  
designed to accommodate caregiving roles.  
In DFE:  
(i)  
Work schedules and locations are flexible: Entrepreneurs can sell and manage their business  
across varied times and places. Olado’s women vendors, for instance, often log in late at night or  
early morning between caring for children (Nuwamanya, 2023).  
(ii)  
(ii). Digital tools mediate trade: Key activities (product listing, marketing, sales transactions) are  
handled online, reducing the need for physical presence. HeHe’s platform gives artisans an online  
storefront and payment integration (Iribagiza, 2025), meaning a mother can monitor orders via  
phone while doing chores.  
(iii) (iii). Care tasks are incorporated rather than sidelined: DFE acknowledges that business may be  
done in parallel with caregiving. As Kasha’s story shows, women entrepreneurs often see their  
businesses as supporting their families’ health and income – for them, the business is part of the  
care economy (Femtech Insider, 2023).  
(iv)  
(iv). Gendered constraints are actively managed: Founders in our cases deliberately designed for  
women’s needs: Kasha uses discreet mobile ordering to respect privacy and stigma; Ki-Pepeo trains  
former housemaids as tailors (recognizing they lack formal education) (Ruzibuka, 2024). DFE thus  
implies a business model that is care-sensitive.  
Together, these dimensions form a new theoretical lens. Our case analysis reveals that enterprises achieving  
DFE can improve women’s economic inclusion. For example, digital ordering reduces the “travel and waiting”  
times that often prevent a mother from selling daily. Olado and Kasha’s founders both emphasize this: Tadhim  
noted that making the platform popular required educating first-time online shoppers (UNCDF, 2021), and  
Joanna Bichsel highlighted that “the mobile phone…is the innovation that’s really made confidential ordering  
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possible” for health products. In effect, DFE extends the benefits of the gig economy and remote work into the  
African context, but with an entrepreneurial slant.  
DFE also has macro implications. If widely adopted, it could narrow gender gaps in GDP growth: McKinsey  
estimates that closer digital parity (including female entrepreneurship online) could boost Africa’s growth  
significantly (Moodley et al., 2019; IFC, 2021). It aligns with AfCFTA’s vision of integrated trade: a truly  
digital free trade zone would multiply markets for caregivers who sell handcrafts or services online. But  
realizing DFE at scale requires policy action, as we discuss next.  
Policy and Practice Implications: the next section answers Research Question 3 by mapping every policy  
lever and platform feature to the precise barrier identified in § 4.2, thereby showing the pathway from isolated  
DFE successes to broad-based, gender-inclusive growth.  
4.4. From Levers to Outcomes: A Policy-Design Map  
Integrate Digital Skills & Care Support → AfCFTA Digital-Trade Article 33 + Rwanda DAP: Article 33  
of the AfCFTA Digital-Trade Protocol obliges State Parties to “develop and implement digital-skills  
programmes, with special focus on women and youth” (AfCFTA, 2024). Rwanda’s national Digital  
Ambassadors Programme (DAP) commits to training five million citizens in basic e-commerce skills and  
explicitly prioritises rural women (MINICT, 2025). Embedding subsidised crèche services within each DAP  
training hub would satisfy Article 33 and erase the care-time penalty diagnosed in § 4.2—thereby  
operationalising Lever 1.  
Improve Data and Monitoring → AfCFTA Digital-Trade Article 30(6) + Kenya Digital-Economy  
Blueprint: Article 30(6) requires Parties to “share methods and procedures for developing data sets and  
analysing participation in digital trade” (AfCFTA, 2024). Kenya’s 2019 Digital-Economy Blueprint identifies a  
dedicated “Data & Innovation” pillar that mandates an open, sex-disaggregated analytics layer for all ICT  
programmes (Smart Africa, 2019). Harmonising the Blueprint’s indicators with Article 30 reporting templates  
turns Lever 2—from abstract monitoring to a continent-wide, gender-visible scorecard.  
Enhance Digital Infrastructure with Gender Focus → AfCFTA Digital-Trade Article 30(3) & 36 +  
Nigeria National Broadband Plan: Article 30(3) enshrines “provision of Internet that is accessible,  
affordable, safe and reliable,” while Article 36 encourages tariff-free ICT inputs and universal-service funds  
((AfCFTA, 2024). Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan 2020-2025 sets a 70 % penetration target and 10 Mbps  
rural-speed floor, explicitly naming women’s digital exclusion as a policy risk (NCC, 2024). Routing Article  
36-triggered universal-service levies into Nigeria’s rural-tower roll-out (or its Rwandan equivalents) closes the  
affordability gap highlighted in Lever 3.  
Promote Women-Friendly E-Commerce Policies → AfCFTA Digital-Trade Article 31 + Women & Youth  
Protocol Article 11: Article 31 directs Parties to “facilitate access to affordable financial instruments for  
MSMEs,” and the Women & Youth Protocol’s Article 11 extends the same duty to women-owned firms  
(AfCFTA, 2024). Translating Article 31’s language verbatim into Rwanda’s forthcoming E-Commerce  
Implementation Road-map would graft a binding gender-finance clause onto domestic law—neutralising the  
legal/credit bias flagged by Lever 4. Early implementation tracking suggests only 6 of 13 surveyed States have  
yet integrated gender-responsive finance targets into their AfCFTA road-maps (AfCFTA Secretariat, 2025).  
Forge Public-Private Partnerships → AfCFTA Digital-Trade Article 32(4) + Rwandan Kasha SeriesB  
precedent: Article 32(4) calls for “public and private-sector partnerships to support digital innovation and  
entrepreneurship”(AfCFTA, 2024). The Knife Capital-led Series B investment in Kasha already models such  
PPP gains at firm level; formalising AfCFTA-aligned PPP compacts for vendor-training consortia and last-mile  
logistics networks would scale the trust-and-reach objectives embodied in Lever 5.  
Account for Care in Formal Support → Women & Youth Protocol Article 8(c) + Rwanda NECDP  
Strategic Plan: Article 8(c) obliges States to “promote quality education and information-awareness  
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programmes” that enable women to trade across borders (African Union, 2025). Rwanda’s National Early  
Childhood Development Programme Strategic Plan 2018-2024 embeds community-based childcare centres  
within its social-protection pillar (NECDP, 2018). Coupling AfCFTA-funded childcare vouchers with these  
centres converts Lever 6’s call for time-relief into a measurable, budget-line reality—closing the flexibility  
loop identified by Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship.  
To translate DFE from concept to reality, coordinated policy and programmatic interventions are needed at  
multiple levels:  
Integrate Digital Skills & Care Support (bridges digital-literacy gap + childcare deficit): Government and  
NGO programs should bundle digital entrepreneurship training with caregiving resources. For example, a  
“digital incubator” for women might offer on-site childcare during classes on e-commerce marketing. The  
Women in Business Initiative in Rwanda (2017-2023) moved in this direction by offering ICT and business  
coaching specifically to women entrepreneurs (Muhammed, 2025). Donors and platforms should replicate such  
models (e.g. SheTrades’s training modules enriched with care-time management tips).  
Improve Data and Monitoring (closes gender-invisible information blind-spots): Platforms and  
governments should collect sex-disaggregated data on e-commerce participation and digital tool usage. As  
global policy action #7 urges, sex-disaggregated data (on users, payments, training uptake) will illuminate gaps  
(UNCDF, 2021). For instance, Jumia could report the share of active women vendors and their growth over  
time, enabling targeted interventions. National statistics offices should include questions on digital work in  
time-use surveys, to quantify how much time women save (or lack) with online businesses.  
Enhance Digital Infrastructure with Gender Focus (cheapens connectivity + overcomes rural access  
constraint): Regulators should ensure affordable internet and mobile connectivity in rural areas. Subsidies or  
public investments (inspired by e.g. India’s digital village programs) should prioritize regions where women’s  
internet access is lowest. Simultaneously, mobile money platforms must be designed with women’s needs:  
lower KYC requirements for small transactions, women-focused agent networks, and strong fraud protection.  
The Gates Foundation notes that easing ID requirements (no-KYC accounts) can boost women’s financial  
inclusion, but they must be paired with safe usage campaigns (Ericsson, 2023).  
Promote Women-Friendly E-Commerce Policies (removes legal omissions + financing bias): Trade and  
SME policies should explicitly mention women and care. For example, AfCFTA member states negotiating the  
Digital Trade Protocol can include chapters on supporting women sellers (as UN Women advocates) (UN  
Women, 2022). Domestic e-commerce policies should set targets (e.g. % of digital MSME grants to women,  
like some countries do for tech VC). The African Development Bank and UN Women’s “Digital Inclusion  
Funds” could provide co-financing for women-led digital startups.  
Public-Private Partnerships (scales trust-building resources + market reach): Collaboration with the  
private sector is vital. Large e-commerce players (like Jumia, Kilimall) and fintech firms should adapt services  
for women entrepreneurs. This might include women-only seller networks, mentorship by established female  
founders, and flexible payment terms (e.g. microcredit via mobile for buying inventory). TechCabal reports  
that Kasha’s success attracted strategic investment (Phillips Ventures, etc.), illustrating the leverage of mixed  
funding. Governments could incentivize platforms to prioritize women’s inclusion, for example through  
preferential procurement of women-owned sellers in public tenders or recognition programs for inclusive  
platforms.  
Account for Care in Formal Support (offsets unpaid-care time poverty). Financial regulators and  
employers should recognize unpaid care as an economic good. Central banks could encourage banks to offer  
time-saving services for women (e.g. banking apps with reminders timed around typical meal/prep times).  
Similarly, labor policies might extend social benefits to self-employed caregivers (as Rwanda’s tea sector  
experiments show [Muhammed, 2025]). The Senegal “3R” program (Muhammed, 2025) provides a model: by  
funding rural childcare centers and clean water, women’s work time increases. African governments could  
emulate this by allocating SME support funds to community childcare co-ops near digital hubs.  
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Each recommendation above can be linked to existing initiatives or literature. For example, the IFC and UN  
Women both advocate targeting e-commerce training to women (IFC, 2021; Muhammed, 2025); the Better  
Than Cash Alliance (UN SG taskforce) emphasizes digitizing social benefits to reduce gender gaps (UNCDF,  
2021). Our suggestions aim to fill the “policy gaps” noted in the literature: while many African countries have  
national digital economy strategies, few explicitly connect them to women’s care burdens (Muhammed, 2025).  
By contrast, the AfCFTA’s Protocol on Women and Youth in Trade (2019) calls for skill-building for female  
entrepreneurs – a nod toward inclusive digital trade that still needs implementation support.  
Macro-economic upside. From a continental vantage-point, the dividend of gender-parity in online sales is  
sizable. IFC modelling shows that if women vendors matched men’s average turnover on Africa’s major  
platforms, the e-commerce market would realise an extra US $15 billion in gross merchandise value by 2030.  
Ethiopia’s recent experience illustrates the labour stakes: World Bank monitoring of the Digital Foundations  
Project finds that the digital-firm ecosystem is on track to generate about 24 000 direct ICT jobs during the  
2020 – 2024 implementation window, with a further 242 000 indirect positions expected by 2025. Applying  
that conservative 1:10 direct-to-indirect ratio at continent scale suggests that closing the gender sales gap could  
unlock well over a quarter-million additional jobs across logistics, fintech and support services—roles that  
dovetail with the care-compatible work patterns highlighted in this study. The latest World Bank Digital  
Economy Jobs Outlook 2025 projects a continent-wide digital-commerce labour demand of 3.2 million by  
2030, with womenable micro-enterprises accounting for nearly one-third of that expansion (World Bank,  
2025).  
CONCLUSION  
Digital platforms hold great promise for expanding flexible growth pathways for African women  
entrepreneurs, but realizing this promise demands intentional integration of care-economy concerns into the  
digital economy. Our study’s concept of Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship captures how e-commerce can  
allow women to schedule work around caregiving, reduce costs of market entry, and reach new buyers from  
home. It illuminates a virtuous cycle: as women succeed online, they reinvest income in their families  
(reinforcing the care economy), and their example can shift norms about women as tech-savvy business  
leaders. The case studies of Olado, Kasha, HeHe (and Ki-Pepeo) show that women-run e-commerce ventures  
can achieve scale and impact when underlying constraints are addressed. For instance, raising USꢀ$21ꢀmillion  
in SeriesꢀB funding for Kasha or the Rwandan MSME program linking women vendors to Olado (UNCDF,  
2021) demonstrate what is possible with targeted support.  
Yet significant challenges remain, including the digital gender gap and entrenched norms. Our findings suggest  
that simply growing internet access is not enough; Africa must explicitly design its digital economy for the  
care context. This requires cross-sectoral policies that weave together the AfCFTA digital trade vision (ITC,  
2025) with gender equality goals. For research, it means studying how unpaid care can be quantified as  
“economic opportunity cost” in digital entrepreneurship models. For policymakers, it means investing in  
female digital literacy and childcare solutions as part of e-commerce strategy.  
Recommendations (Actionable Set): We propose the following to stakeholders in government, business and  
civil society:  
(i). Develop “Care-Responsive” Digital Programs: Fund and scale initiatives that combine ecommerce  
training with childcare provision (e.g. local women’s hubs offering daycare and WiFi).  
(ii). Collect Disaggregated Data: Mandate digital platforms and statistical offices to report women’s  
participation (users, vendors, digital payments) to track progress against targets.  
(iii). Incentivize Women-Targeted Fintech: Encourage banks and mobile money operators to create women-  
friendly products (e.g. small loans via USSD, savings accounts without collateral).  
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(iv). Include Gender in AfCFTA/Trade Protocols: Ensure national implementation of AfCFTA’s digital and  
women/youth protocols includes consultations with women entrepreneurs.  
(v). Engage Private Sector: Partner with major e-commerce companies to recruit and mentor women sellers;  
offer tax breaks for platforms that exceed women’s seller quotas.  
(vi). Invest in Care Infrastructure: Use a portion of digital economy funds to build community childcare,  
clean water, and electricity – essential enablers of women’s time.  
Foresight (10-Year Projections): Looking ahead to 2035, the trajectory of DFE in Africa could be  
transformative if trends continue. On the optimistic path, digital infrastructure expands (5G and satellite  
internet reach rural areas) and digital literacy training becomes mainstream in schools and community centers.  
Genderfocused fintech matures, enabling women-owned microenterprises to tap savings and credit rapidly.  
Under such conditions, the e-commerce gender gap could shrink substantially: an IFC projection suggests  
closing the sales gap would cumulatively add ~$14–15ꢀbillion by 2030 (IFC, 2021). By 2035, e-marketplaces  
may routinely feature mobile-based micro-retail stalls manned by mother-entrepreneurs, supported by drone or  
automated delivery in some regions. Advances in AI could automate logistics or customer service for small  
sellers, further reducing time costs. Policymakers may have institutionalized a “care account” metric in  
economic planning, following the example of West African time-use surveys (Muhammed, 2025), leading to  
regular government subsidization of women’s digital training.  
However, risks loom: if current inertia persists, time poverty could worsen with new care demands (aging  
populations) and gender norms might limit women’s tech adoption. Our proposed concept and framework  
suggest specific research agendas: for example, scholars should study how altruistic digital platforms (e.g.  
cooperatives or social enterprises like Ki-Pepeo) fare under different policy regimes, and how caregiving time  
reallocation affects female-led SME growth rates. In policy terms, a decade from now we should see whether  
AfCFTA-enabled cross-border e-commerce is genuinely accessible to women, and if that has translated into  
formal jobs and reduced care burdens.  
Limitations: This article is grounded in a rigorously screened corpus of secondary literature and publicly  
available case evidence. Such reliance, however, entails two intertwined constraints.  
First, the digitalentrepreneurship scholarship available for synthesis is disproportionately drawn from high-  
profile, wellcapitalised platforms, raising the possibility of publication bias that may overstate scalability while  
muting failure narratives (Egger, Davey Smith, Schneider, & Minder, 1997).  
Second, the majority of extant studies— and the datasets we interrogate—remain cross-sectional; few track the  
longitudinal re-allocation of women’s time after adopting e-commerce, limiting causal inference about  
enduring flexibility gains (Bowen, 2009). We attenuated these blind-spots by systematic triangulation across  
academic, policy, and grey sources (see § 3.1) and by reading the evidence through a critical-realist lens that  
foregrounds both observable events and the deeper structures that condition them. This reflexive stance treats  
celebrated success stories as tendencies rather than deterministic outcomes, allowing counter-evidence to  
surface and preserving explanatory depth without lapsing into technophilia.  
In closing, the intersection of e-commerce and the care economy represents a fertile frontier. By embracing  
Digitally Flexible Entrepreneurship as both a theory and a goal, Africa can unlock a wave of womenled  
innovation that grows markets while advancing gender equity. The digital age offers the tools; our  
recommendations outline the path. If African nations pursue them, we could witness a new inclusive growth  
paradigm – one where women are not forced to choose between business and family, but can do both.  
Ethics Statement: This article is based solely on previously published, secondary sources; consequently, no  
human‐participant or animal research was undertaken and formal ethics approval was not required.  
Conflict of Interest:The author reports no conflicts of interest in relation to the research, authorship, or  
publication of this study.  
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Data Availability: All data analysed during the study are contained within the manuscript. Any additional  
clarification needed to facilitate replication can be obtained from the corresponding author upon reasonable  
request.  
Funding: The study was carried out with the author’s own effort and resources and did not receive  
external funding.  
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