Africa’s leading e-commerce giant and first unicorn, Jumia plans to expand its eCommerce offering to include food delivery across Africa. Dubbed the Amazon of Africa, Jumia seem poised to expand its offerings across the continent.
Sacha Poignonnec, Jumia’s co-CEO said that 20% of all transactions across the Jumia platform is already made up of food and this is growing quickly adding that the service will expand to Egypt following the exit of Uber Eats from the North African country. The Jumia boss’ comments comes “after a year where demand for delivered meals and groceries has exploded worldwide as restrictions to contain the coronavirus kept people indoors”.
Though it has taken some African countries longer to adapt to the reality of on-demand food delivery services, efforts are being made to improve and ensure the adoption rate grows beyond what it is presently. However, the major challenge being faced by many countries is due to limited access to affordable Internet solutions.
To maximize its expansion drive, Jumia has also unveiled a new mobile gaming service in partnership with Mondia to launch a mobile gaming service which will be accessible from the JumiaPay App. According to company sources, the gaming service portal is available in five African countries including Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya and Ghana with plans to expand the service to Jumia customers in Tunisia and Côte d’Ivoire over the next few months.
Speaking on the company’s innovations, Sami Louali, EVP Financial Services at Jumia Group, says, “We have always been at the forefront of providing our consumers with the latest and best products and services. With the launch of this new category on JumiaPay Apps, we are providing our consumers with an exciting digital gaming and entertainment experience. With the help of our partner, Mondia, consumers can enjoy entertainment services through our JumiaPay App in addition to other digital and financial services”. The company said that subscriptions to Jumia Games gives customers unlimited access to all games with prices starting from $1.8 per month.