African Tech Giant JUMIA

It could not have got off to a much better start for Jumia's historic stock market listing. The hoopla on the day it became the first Africa-focussed tech firm to list on the New York Stock Exchange was massive.

International media took note and investors piled in, its share price rose more than 70% in value on the day but the excitement would prove to be short-lived.

"In our countries where we operate there are 700 million people and last year we served more than four million consumers" co-chief executive officer Sacha Poignonnec told the BBC on the floor of the stock exchange.

When I sat down to speak with his co-CEO, Jeremy Hodara, in September the firm had had a humbling few years. Share prices plummeted and came back, backers had bailed out, and it had withdrawn from trading in three of the fourteen countries it was operating in - and that's not to mention reports of fraud lawsuits in New York courts and a public relations disaster over its identity.

But the promise of millions of consumers newly connected to the internet has not gone away and neither has interest in Jumia which is still by far the largest e-commerce company focussed on the African continent - although its management and much of technical expertise is based outside of Africa.

IMAGE SOURCE,JUMIAImage caption,The promise of deliveries to more than a billion consumers in Africa drove interest in Jumia


By 2030, consumer spending across Africa is expected to reach $2.5tn. Jumia still sells goods in 11 of those countries. It operates a marketplace where thousands of other businesses sell goods on its platform and has a finance arm, Jumia pay, so customers can go about their shopping, pay utility bills and order pizza, all without leaving the Jumia's platforms.  TO READ MORE ABOUT JUMIA, CLICK HERE...