Tunisian Minister of Commerce Omar al-Bahi revealed that the e-commerce trade in Tunisia is limited and didn’t exceed TND 166 million (around $63 million) last year, considering the e-commerce performance as weak against world e-commerce levels. During an economic seminar on the Tunisian consumers and the electronic commerce, Bahi stressed the importance of reviving e-commerce activities that might have a social and economic role in a country where more than 630,000 are unemployed, of which 250,000 of them are university graduates. A number of challenges face the e-commerce development, mainly the necessity of protecting the consumer in addition to ensuring increased safety in e-payments, said the minister. There are around 1,412 e-commerce websites involved in the e-payment system, announced the national institute of consumption (Institut National de la Consommation). According to the same sources, the value of trade reached TND 166 million last year. The number of e-payment transactions was estimated as 2.4 million transactions during the past year. Yet, this number remains modest given the development this activity is undergoing worldwide. Estimates revealed that this trade will reach by 2020 up to $4 trillion, worldwide, which is 14.6 percent of the retail trade. Unlike the figures presented by the government bodies, a number of attendants in the seminar objected that the number of e-commerce transactions presented doesn’t reflect the state of commerce in Tunisia as there is a huge percentage of e-payment that doesn’t pass through the e-payment means and its size therefore can’t be determined.