Challenges facing e-commerce in Tanzania: a case study of small enterprises in Ilala municipality, Dar es Salaam

The primary objective of this study was to identify challenges facing e-commerce adoption among small enterprises in Tanzania, using a case of Ilala municipality. The study specifically identified socio-economic factors, socio-cultural factors, technological infrastructures and government policies challenging adoption of e-commerce among small enterprises. Sixty Five managers from different firms were given questionnaires and interviewed. Analysis involved correlation, regression and ANOVA tests. The study found that socio-economic factors that cause challenges in adoption and use of e-commerce were economic condition, payment system, financial burden, educational system, low investment in IT and logistic. Socio-cultural factors identified through correlation test to cause challenges in adoption and use of e-commerce were lack of transactional trust, shopping as a social place, language problem and limitation on personal contact. Technological infrastructures identified to cause challenges in e-commerce adoption were high cost of IT equipment, high cost of internet usage, high setup cost of e-commerce system, low level of PC/Internet penetration, and lack of IT skilled personnel, low security and privacy concerns and slow speed internet service. And government policies which have negative impact in adoption and use of e-commerce were identified to be weak ICT policies to guide provision of internet service, weak policies to guide e-commerce and high import duties on IT equipment. The study recommends that government should work harder to improve economic conditions of the country