According to a survey done by This Day, a Nigerian-based business news website, the countries e-commerce sector has grown to reach nearly $13 billion in value as more and more people get connected to the internet in the West African country.

The Nigerian government forecasts that over 80 percent of the country’s 177 million people will be able to access broadband mobile internet by the year 2018, while 20 percent of them will be connected to fixed line high speed internet.

This Day says with this increased connectivity the number of orders made on major on-line retailing platforms, such as Konga.com, Jumia.com, DealDey, QuikTellers, WakaNow, RyteDeals, Checki.com and Buga.com,have incerase from just 1,000 per day in 2012 to 15,000 currently.

This it is says has grown the value of transaction done daily from $35 million to over $550 million.

“Today, on average, the leading online stores achieve about $2 million worth of transactions per week,” This Day reported.

The sector, which now supports over 20,000 jobs, is said to have attracted  over $200 million in foreign direct investment since 2012, with the two largest online retailing website, Jumia and Konga, recieving $50 million in the last one year.

Nigerian online retailers are now facing one big challenge in terms of data security which is making some potential clients stay away from these platforms.

“One roadblock in the online retail market is data security, which reduces frequency of online purchases. In fact, a large number of Nigerians still prefer the traditional retail channels because of this,” FBN Capital said in a report on the sector.