Online retailers in key African markets are stepping up efforts to prevent fraud and gain the trust of consumers in order to encourage online payments in a region where, because of the vast numbers of mobile users, the potential for e-commerce is enormous.

“Security is still one of the biggest issues we face in the market,” says Cristobal Alonso, the CEO and co-founder of African social marketplace MOBOfree, which this week introduced an ID verification program for its users in Nigeria and Uganda.

The company declines to post about 30 percent of the ads intended to go on its site, due to signs that they are for scams. “We can only imagine how big are scam volumes on boards of classifieds which do not have any advanced security tools and procedures,” Alonso said by email.

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