Women Have 51% Command in Kenya’s E-commerce Space, Jumia

Jumia Africa has revealed that women have now dominated the e-commerce sector in Kenya with 51 percent of them running businesses on its platform.

The Africa E-Commerce Index 2021’ report, which encircles Kenya and Africa as a whole revealed that in Kenya, women are the most active sellers in e-commerce.

Sam Chappate, the Chief executive of Jumia noted that the E-Commerce space is female entrepreneur-friendly and has driven many women to start their businesses full-time or part-time.

“E-commerce is inherently female-entrepreneur friendly. There are no gatekeepers, and this has made it easy for many women to start their businesses full-time or part-time. As you can see some of our best sellers are female entrepreneurs,” said Chappate.

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Women in Nigeria hold a similar percentage of 51 percent in the e-commerce world, while Ivory Coast comes in third at a 31 percent rate.

Still, on the ranking of states, the report stated that Kenya, South Africa, and Nigeria are the leading fintech ecosystems in Africa

Mr. Chappate also added that women’s participation is a key driver of inclusive development in Africa, and now Jumia is striving to close the gender gap by aiding women-owned businesses to grow and achieve their targeted revenues.

“Over the past two years, Jumia has been offering training to both women and men and equipped them with the necessary skills to grow their business and gain maximum revenue input from their services”, added Sam.

According to the report, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019, there has been a shift in online consumer shopping behavior towards Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and beauty products bringing an increase from 44 percent Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) in 2019 to 57 percent in 2020.

“The pandemic has shifted consumer behavior. Kenyans are now increasingly considering online shopping for their everyday needs -seeking convenience, high-quality products, and competitive prices, the service is turning into an everyday solution, “said Chappate

At the same time, Nairobi was revealed as the top Kenyan city with the highest number of online deliveries, followed by Mombasa and Kiambu.

A majority of the Sub-Saharan population do not have an account at a financial institution or mobile money provider.