805 sellers get loan from Jumia as firm unveils sustainability report
Chief Executive Officer of Jumia, Nigeria, Juliet Anammah
In 2021, 805 unique sellers received loans through Jumia Lending, representing a 27 per cent increase in the number of sellers compared to 2020.
According to Jumia, the average loan size was $2,217, where some of the sellers, who are small medium enterprises (SMEs), often find it difficult to access loans in Africa.
Jumia revealed this in its first Environmental Social Governance (ESG) report, which is part of the Sustainability Report 2021. It was recently unveiled at a virtual media briefing. The eCommerce firm, which said the small businesses lack collateral and the types of traditional financial history banks require to extend loans to them, noted “for this reason, they are predominantly excluded from accessing working capital loans to grow their businesses. With Jumia Lending, we are solving this problem by connecting sellers to lenders through our platform.”
The firm disclosed that it reduces reverse shipments by allowing certain qualifying customers to keep certain items they wish to return and still give them a refund.
“Through this initiative, we avoided shipping 16,800 and 28,000 packages in 2020 and 2021 respectively. This is the equivalent of 5.2 tons and 6.6 tons of Co2 avoided respectively,” it stated.
The report draws on Jumia’s 2021 non-financial data and provides disclosures in line with Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) materiality topics for e-commerce entities as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). While recognising the importance of standard ESG focus areas, Jumia draws attention to the role that e-commerce plays in advancing more equal opportunities in Africa.
As such, the company said it has made its mission, “Leveraging technology to improve everyday lives in Africa,” the first pillar of its sustainability strategy.
The report highlights five material themes in the context of its sustainability strategy, which include environment (minimizing impact on environment); social (providing convenience, affordability and accessibility for consumers; empowering sellers, partners, and communities; building an engaged inclusive and diverse workforce) and governance (operating with strong governance and ethical standards).
Commenting, Jumia Co-Founders and CEOs, Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, said: “We are proud that through our actions and our ecosystem, we are contributing to social development, generating employment and business opportunities, and closing inequality gaps for thousands of people.’’
To Jumia Chief Sustainability Officer and Chairwoman Nigeria, Juliet Anammah, it is exciting to note, “we have endless opportunities to make choices which are good for our business and also good for our people, communities and the planet. As a growing entity on the path to profitability, this alignment between sustainability and our business objectives is a critical success factor.”
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