The Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Jumia Group, Jeremy Hodara has affirmed the platform’s commitment towards driving e-commerce penetration in Nigeria and Africa at large.
Hodara, who spoke while reviewing the company’s activities for 2019, said the platform will focus on increasing the purchasing power of customers, build a robust platform for Jumia Pay and partner with vendors to build their businesses.
Jumia Pay is a new and free online payment service that enables payments online securely, instantly, and cost-effectively.
According to Hodara, a major milestone recorded in 2019, was the acceptance of the Jumia Pay payment platform by consumers using the Jumia platform, which he said accounted for over 30% of transactions in the third-quarter of 2019.
He also said that Jumia expanded e-commerce opportunities in Ibadan and Edo states in 2019 while extending e-commerce penetration to more rural areas in Bayelsa state and Bonny in Rivers state, where choices for products are extremely limited.
“To better serve our customers in the remote areas, Jumia launched its cash-on-delivery programme for customers in 15 cities in the North and South-East regions.
“Also, we integrated more than 30 new logistics partners and opened more than 50 Last Mile delivery hubs to facilitate deliveries for our sellers to consumers.
“We launched International Sneakers Day and Home of Brands marketing campaigns to drive e-commerce penetration in Nigeria. Again, in 2019, the Jumia App was the most downloaded App in the Nigerian e-commerce space,” he said.
While he reiterated that Jumia is keen on positioning the company for enhanced profitability and better services, the expected growth and profitability in 2020, he said, would be made possible by incentivising the use of the platform.