How we survived recession in Nigeria – Jumia

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LONG term strategic planning is giving the electronic commerce platform, Jumia a heads up against its competition that appears to be shedding weight due to recession. The company’s global chief executive officer (CEO), Jeremy Hodara admitted recently that the company may have not made enough gains in its five years of operating in Nigeria, but because of long term planning, the recession and Forex challenges did not in any way slow down its operations.

According to Hodara, “Nigeria is still where to be. The demand is still here despite the various economic challenges. Agreed, that the Nigerian economy has indeed been very tough in the last 18 months, which has thrown up lots of unpredictable behaviour from the consumers, but we are still ahead and instead of going down, we are recording increasing demands and we are expanding our offerings too.

Despite not being so profitable, we are still investing in the business in various forms. Jumia is a Nigerian company that will be here for another 100 years. We are on the long term. Nigeria is our biggest market. We are not in a hurry to make profit. It took Amazon about 25 years before they could become profitable. But we shall remain consistent, serving the Nigerian economy thoroughly.”

Meanwhile, Hodara also hinted that about 60 of the company’s 15000 vendors across the country would benefit in a soft loan scheme the company was putting in place to boost ecommerce in Nigeria. He disclosed that vendors that have distinguished themselves in terms of professionalism; trust and also have verifiable needs for the loan would be considered so that their businesses will continue to flourish.

He also used the opportunity to intimate on the company’s plans to extend the ‘Black Friday sales to one month instead of the usual two weeks the promotional sales last. He said this was to celebrate Nigerians who have also consistently patronised and kept the company running.

Hodara confessed that Nigeria remained the largest market among the 20 countries Jumia currently has its footprints in Africa. Jumia recorded over eight million customers, who patronized the platform during the ‘Black Friday’ last year, but this year, Jumia is planning to double the figures.

 

 

VanguardNGR