Jumia Celebrates a Decade of eCommerce in Uganda

Jumia Uganda, the country’s leading eCommerce platform yesterday celebrated its 10th-anniversary commemorating a decade of eCommerce in the country. The eCommerce firm has managed to maintain its leadership in the eCommerce space in Uganda as the number one online shopping destination for electronics, home appliances, fashion on Jumia, food, and everyday essentials.

While speaking to the press at their new head office at Union House, Bugolobi, Kampala, Mr. Ron Kawarama, the CEO of Jumia Uganda credited the company’s continued growth and existence to consumer trust, partnerships, continuous innovation, and research.

“Business sustainability is a challenge, especially in the highly competitive environment in Uganda. Our success story is thanks to the continued trust that our consumers have in our brand, and the strong partnerships that we have established with both local and international companies; sellers, logistics partners, investment partners, and others,” Kawarama said. “Innovation is necessary for Jumia and we continuously innovate to provide solutions that meet our consumer needs based on feedback and trends.”

As a key investment partner to Jumia, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mr. Innocent Fred Ejolu, the UNDP Partnerships, Innovation, and Development Solutions Specialist Focal Point, Accelerator Lab, expressed gratitude to Jumia for the continued efforts to improve the livelihoods of Ugandans across the country and committed to continue supporting Jumia.

“UNDP partnered with Jumia Food in 2022 in the wake of COVID 19 with the aim of connecting informal market vendors with consumers through Jumia’s eCommerce platform,” said Ejolu.

“Most of the small businesses, up to 60%, were facing the risk of closure. So We quickly worked with Jumia and built a partnership that enabled us to connect 7 markets in Kampala and we’ve learned quite a lot through this process, that we can close the digital divide,” Ejolu explains.

Ejolu further noted that it is something positive and something UNDP can capitalize on and they want to ride on Jumia’s connection with the E-Trading Association to tap into Jumia’s knowledge to help them build a more responsive regulatory environment for eCommerce and potentially look at how they can facilitate trade beyond borders using digital platforms.

“We are working on supporting the Ministry of Trade with an eCommerce strategy and plan — and we think that this is a process we can ride on to see if we can create the conditions for what we are building with Jumia to grow,” Ejolu told the press in his concluding remarks.

Jumia in its 10-year operation in Uganda has managed to reach all districts in Uganda through a distribution network of over 200 pick-up stations supported by over 2,000 sales agents and 12 world-class logistics partners.

Jumia Food meanwhile has established partnerships with over 450 restaurants across Kampala and Entebbe to deliver food, gas, water, pharmaceuticals, and groceries to consumers, maintaining dominance in the food eCommerce market.