Jumia’s Payments Unit Now One-Third Of Marketplace Revenue

Jumia Technologies in Africa is looking to keep building its eCommerce presence for the long term while adding to the momentum in its payments division, which now accounts for one-third of its overall business, according to a Wednesday (June 30) Bloomberg article.

“I don’t think we at Jumia are interested in size. That’s good for ego, but that’s not really useful,” Jumia co-founder Jeremy Hodara told Bloomberg. “I think what we care about is to last very long as a successful business and to be here in 100 years.”

Jumia, based in Nigeria, first introduced its JumiaPay app in 2016 and is now used to pay for more than 50 percent of sales on the platform. The company also recently launched consumer loans via collaborations with banks.

While there is no immediate plan in the works to spin off the company’s payment division, Hodara said it’s not out of the question in the future. The Nigeria-based firm also does not have immediate plans to move beyond the 11 African countries where it operates nor is seeking additional fundraising in the near future.

“Our job is to serve as many people in Nigeria, Kenya and in Ghana as possible,” Hodara told Bloomberg.

The COVID-19 pandemic helped encourage more people to shop online and conduct other transactions digitally in Africa, just as it did for eCommerce firms around the globe. Sami Louali, executive vice president of Financial Services at Jumia Technologies, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in a May interview that the shift to online is now part of the everyday norm.

JumiaPay represented 26 percent of gross merchandise volume (GMV) and transactions increased 7 percent year over year. Typical transaction sizes declined a bit due in part to a shift in purchases to daily needs as opposed to bigger spending on electronics.