In celebration of its seven years of operations in the country, e-commerce giant, Jumia Nigeria, has given itself a pass mark in terms of performance.
At the celebration of the company’s 7th anniversary held in Lagos recently, CEO of Jumia Nigeria, Mrs Juliet Annamah, said the organisation, the last 12 calendar months, has recorded significant achievements in three major areas of its operations in the country.
She listed these achievements as customer delivery experience, e-commerce reach & expansion, and job creation and empowerment.
According to her, among major achievements recorded include the nationwide expansion of its last mile delivery hubs to accommodate 33 new ones. Others include the integration of 25 new logistics partners to its network of partners and the addition of 4 major local languages to assist customers to place orders by phone.
“These are deliberate efforts towards expanding the reach of e-commerce in rural cities where prepayment had been the only payment option, thereby expanding the footprint of payment on delivery to these cities.”
“We have also observed that some of our customers prefer to interact with our customer service agents in their various native languages. In response, we have integrated the 4 major local languages – Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Pidgin,” she added.
In yet another strategic move towards improving customers’ delivery experience and helping them save money on shipping, Jumia also introduced for the first time ever in the Nigerian e-commerce sector, Jumia Prime package which is a paid subscription package that enables customers to shop on Jumia with zero shipping fees for a preset duration.
Available in Lagos and Abuja at the moment, it will be extended to other cities in due course. With a Jumia prime subscription, there is no limit to how many orders a customer can make and get free shipping within the period covered in their subscription.
In his remarks, Mr Dele Awolala, Jumia Nigeria HR Lead stated that Jumia creates thousands of jobs through its ecosystem which houses online services such as food delivery, hotel and flight booking, classified advertising, and airtime recharge.
“We continue to see e-commerce as an enabler of job creation and empowerment. We have over 2,000 people directly employed in Nigeria and potentially another 850 through our ecosystem of partners.
“Our impact on employment is also seen through our nationwide J-Force programme which has not only provided employment opportunities to thousands of Nigerians but has also equipped them with the right training on how to become self-sufficient entrepreneurs,” Mr Awolala added.
Other employment and empowerment programmes by Jumia include the recently launched women and youth empowerment programme.
It is designed for Nigerian women & youth below 30 years of age, helping them earn extra income while educating consumers especially among rural dwellers, understand how to use Jumia to save time and save money.
In closing, Mrs Anammah said, “Jumia’s mission is to leverage the power of the internet and data to improve the everyday life of Africans. Every year we push the boundaries in line with our mission.”
Adedapo Adesanya 
Business Post Contributor