‘Nigeria, 14 Others Generate 80% of Africa’s GDP’- Jumia CEO

Nigeria and 14 other countries are currently generating over 80 per cent of Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is according to Jumia Nigeria in its 2017 African Mobile Trends study, presented on Tuesday, to herald the commencement of the Jumia Mobile Week, which starts from April 24 to 30.

Also affirming Nigeria’s significance in the continent, the Chief Executive Officer of Jumia Nigeria, Juliet Anammah said with the current Internet penetration rate of 53 per cent (97.2 million users) Nigeria has a much higher penetration rate than across Africa. Specifically, Nigeria, has 18 per cent higher Internet penetration than the whole of Africa.

According to her: “About 71 per cent of website visitors on Jumia use their mobile phones. This is in comparison to 53 per cent of Jumia African customers. One of the main vehicles of this mobile trajectory is the increasing adoption of the smartphone device by consumers. As predicted in our 2016 report, smartphone adoption continues to rise in Nigeria.”

Anammah said, “The study takes a look at how the market has democratized mobile Internet use, the consumer behaviours driving increased smartphone adoption and the role of mobile brands, mobile operators and m-commerce in creating a synergy of an enhanced customer experience.”

“One reason for this could be that countries with higher levels of income have been found to have more users accessing the internet with heavier browsers like chrome – which typically have higher system requirements. Opera mini is a lighter browser in terms of data usage and is popular among new mobile internet users who have lower incomes and can’t afford costly internet data packs.

“A recent report from Opera determined the savings on mobile data costs for Opera mini users in Nigeria has amounted to about $198 million (N39.5 billion) over a 10-month period, due to its data compression technology. This is a clear example of the ripple effect that customer enjoy when a slight change is introduced by one of the digital ecosystem players,” she stated.