NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

By Yomi Kazeem

When it first launched in Nigeria in 2012, Jumia quickly realized just how much work was needed to build a logistics service that could enable its e-commerce ambitions across the continent.

In fact, early day e-commerce businesses on the continent faced several problems which ranged from trust deficits on the part of customers to a lack of reliable online payments infrastructure. In the event that those two key problems were surmounted and an order was placed, the logistics of ensuring prompt delivery in congested cities with limited addressing systems also typically proved tricky.

Photo courtesy of Fabian Blank.