Jumia has launched a new lending program targeting small and medium-sized business enterprises (SMEs) across the country.
The loan program according to the company will leverage transactional, operational and behavioural data from Jumia’s platforms by thousands of SMEs to provide credit facilities to them.
“The Jumia lending programme was launched with the aim of making it easier for SMEs to grow their businesses. We know that SMEs on our platforms struggle to secure affordable credit from financial institutions, thereby limiting their potential to invest in their businesses and themselves”, Jumia co-CEO Sacha Poignonnec said.
Under this program, sellers on the platform will be able to access credit at favourable terms, with low-interest rates of up to 12% per annum. These funds are expected to be invested into working capital to buy goods to sell on the Jumia platform. Over 200 sellers across Africa are gearing up to take advantage of this program ahead of the Black Friday sale in November.
To access the program, vendors simply follow an online application and can expect a decision within two days. This compares very favorably to the experience they face today with financial institutions, with complicated paperwork requirements and lengthy waiting periods for loans to be approved.
The Lending Program was first launched in Kenya and has now been rolled out in Jumia’s largest markets (Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco and Ivory Coast).
The e-commerce leader made this announcement during the TechCrunch’s Battlefield Africa competition held in Nairobi with Sacha Poignonnec emphasizing the need to simplify lending processes for SME’s in Africa, and committed to contributing to a solution.
The launch comes just weeks after the company also announced its the launch of Jumia Express (Formerly ‘’Jumia First) that will see products on the site with Express logo delivered the following for customers in Nairobi, and at least a day faster than normal for customers outside the capital.
