Jumia records a whopping 120.1m EUR net loss

Despite Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) increase of 41.8 per cent year-on-year from 357.5 million EUR in 2016 to 507million EUR, the leading online eCommerce ecosystem in Africa, Jumia on Tuesday announced its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2017 and for the full year 2017, with Adjusted EBITDA has declared a negative 120.1 million EUR for the full year.

Adjusted EBITDA was calculated as operating profit or loss before depreciation of property, plant and equipment, amortization of intangible assets and share-based compensation expenses.

The report shows that the GMV growth was mainly driven by improved macro-economic conditions, as well as a stronger relevance of the marketplace, notably with a significant increase in the number of active merchants as well as products and services available.

Jumia said it was increasingly addressing daily needs of consumers across its markets, resulting in a strong increase in the number of orders and growth of customer base.

“We made great progress in 2017 with significant growth of the business, driven by technological innovations and improved relevance of the offering of goods and services. This growth is demonstrating the robust momentum in our core businesses and markets, and the increased adoption of online services by African consumers", Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Jumia co-CEOs was quoted as saying.

“We are also seeing good results from our strategy to further develop our logistics platform and our payment platform. Our customers continue to benefit from increasing access to great services, quality products, improved customer experience and the tremendous convenience of being able to shop online.”

Issue of trust and transparency have been two major challenges facing the eCommerce industry in Nigeria for many years.

Jumia's major competition, Konga was recently bought over by Zinox and many other online retail platforms are also battling for market share.