7th March, 2022
Chairwoman, Jumia Nigeria and Chief Sustainability Officer of Jumia Group, Juliet Anammah, has espoused the impact of e-commerce on the female gender, saying it has been a major force for women empowerment in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
She spoke as the world shines a spotlight on women’s equality in celebration of 2022 International Women’s Day
Anammah, while speaking on the contribution of e-commerce to the global gender equality drive, said e-commerce platforms are well-positioned to provide training to women-owned businesses.
“We had a recent survey, and what I found really interesting is that women said they find e-commerce attractive because it’s a gender agnostic environment. In a physical market, someone can make a gender-related decision of maybe not buying an electronic product from a woman,” she said.
She further explained that e-commerce encourages African women to take proper care of their homes, and also provides them access to much needed financial opportunities like in-platform loans, at lower rates to enhance their businesses.
“It is also giving women the flexibility to manage their homes while still running their own businesses. Furthermore, women said they appreciate selling on Jumia because of the training which includes digital marketing, online selling, and account statement reading. The importance of this basic training to SMEs cannot be overemphasized.
“Access to capital is also available through Jumia lending, a platform-administered lending initiative that provides sellers with short-term working capital. We connect sellers on our platform, leveraging their transaction history to finance providers who are Jumia partners,” she added.
According to a report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in partnership with Africa’s leading e-commerce firm Jumia, women account for half of all active e-commerce sellers in Africa. In Nigeria and Kenya which are key markets for Jumia, 51% of sellers on the platform are women.
International Women’s Day is celebrated globally every 8th of March.