Jumia is developing buy now, pay later solutions for consumers in partnership with third parties. The service, which could launch in Egypt, has already inked partnerships with 10 banks and fintechs in the North African country.
As part of a move to drive adoption of the JumiaPay app, the company's partners will be responsible for credit underwriting and loan disbursement. Jumia is also working on increasing the number of payment options available on the JumiaPay app, even as it seeks to launch JumiaPay on delivery in Ghana, Morocco, and Uganda.
Although the number of JumiaPay transactions declined by 38%, the company reports that half of post-paid transactions in Kenya for Q2 2023 were completed using JumiaPay. It's also pursuing a strategy that will see it facilitate payments for third parties by providing them with a white-label solution.
In its relentless pursuit to cut costs, the company laid off some staff in 2022 and shut down some services. However, it has seen a year-over-year decline in quarterly active consumers, orders, and gross merchandise value.
"The average inflation level across our footprint reached 14.1% in June 2023, with highs of 42.5% and 35.7% registered in Ghana and Egypt, respectively. In Nigeria, inflation rose to an 18-year high of 22.8% in June 2023," the company said in its Q2 2023 report.
In June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria announced that it was unifying the country's exchange rate. That immediately sent the naira into a tailspin. The Kenyan shilling has also lost significant value when benchmarked against the US dollar and contributed to Jumia's GMV decline.
The company is also doubling down on efforts to increase the lifetime value of its customers. Products such as airtime recharge that required heavy promotion have been discontinued in favor of products with healthy unit economics that drive repeat purchases.
