One of Africa’s biggest
e-commerce platform Jumia said it is set to become an equivalent of Amazon on a
continent with tremendous opportunities, which will see its online
population reach 50 per cent by 2025 and its smartphone owners rise to
360 million.
Jumia which already made headlines no less
than a week ago by securing a second investment of 225 million euros
from Goldman Sachs and historical investors MTN and Rocket Internet.
Earlier this month, the company had announced a new investor, French
insurer Axa, which joined the group for an 8 per cent stake and 75
million euros.
Africa Internet Group, the umbrella company behind Jumia, has thus become the first African Unicorn with a valuation of more than a 1 billion euros.
Africa Internet Group, the umbrella company behind Jumia, has thus become the first African Unicorn with a valuation of more than a 1 billion euros.
Interestingly,If Jumia is present in 11 countries in
Africa, Nigeria is the country where it all started and is now the
flagship both in terms of market size and business performance with up
to 135 000 orders in one day during Black Friday 2015.
More fascinating still, its top
leadership in Nigeria is 100 per cent female, which is historical in
many ways with two African women leading an Internet and Retail company
with a record valuation and performance. To many extents, this is
observed as an outstanding achievement as the entire world is
celebrating International Women’s Day.
The females, Juliet Anammah and
Fatoumata Ba, coming from different backgrounds, have joined forces to
lead Jumia Nigeria towards greatness. Juliet Anammah, comes with more
than 15 years’ experience in consulting with leading firm Accenture in
Nigeria while Senegalese-born Fatoumata Ba led Nigeria’s largest online
retailer earlier on in 2015 after having first founded and successfully
grown Jumia in Ivory Coast since 2013.
Interviewed for Women’s Day, both women
gave their vision on gender parity, most particularly in the tech world,
and on leading Africa’s first unicorn’s flagship.
Juliet Anammah imparted people with advice for women.
According to her, “Show up 90 per cent
of success is showing up. You’ll never have all the answers nor will you
slay every dragon on your path but once you show up you’ll find that
sometimes obstacles become the way.” Mother of four children, Juliet
Anammah has had different struggles and attributes her greatest
achievement as raising her children while her biggest challenge remains
juggling between “priorities of work, family and her community”.
Jumia is said to have one of the highest
proportion of women leaders in Africa and globally, with a whopping 40
per cent women managers, managing directors and CEOs.
CEO Jumia Africa, Jeremy Doutte,
commenting on the development, said: “At Jumia, we nurture one value.
Let the best ideas and people grow. Diversity is not a goal for Jumia,
neither is gender parity. Diversity and gender parity are a reality at
Jumia Africa. This has been achieved by letting all talents blossom, and
women have benefited from our equal opportunity environment. Jumia has
extremely talented women at all levels of the organization, across all
countries. Our companies in Kenya and in Nigeria are led and managed by
women and they are doing fantastically well. We truly believe this is
just the beginning.”
THISDAY
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