Jumia Refutes Fraud Allegation, Says Report Unfounded

Jumia Nigeria has refuted allegations made against it by a stock market analysis company, Citron Research as unverified, biased and aimed at damaging the image of the company.

Juliet Anammah, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria, stated this during a press conference held on Wednesday, in Lagos.

According to her, “Some recent allegations were made about Jumia on the basis of selected, biased or unverified facts with what appears to be a clear objective of damaging Jumia.

“We held our earnings call on Monday May 13th and we published our first quarter results, which we are very pleased with, and provided information to demonstrate those recent allegations are wrong.

Juliet Anammah, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria at the press conference.

“We encourage you to download our results and access the transcript of the call, both of which are publicly available.

“We stand by the disclosures we made in our prospectus, which accurately describe our business and the related risks in all material respects.

“We are very excited about the future and our prospects. We will not be distracted from executing on our strategy and carrying out our mission by people who seek to create doubt to profit at our Company’s expense.

“In March, BCG published a report explaining that online marketplaces had the potential to create 3 million new jobs across the African continent by 2025.

“We very much believe in the positive impact of technology, and of Jumia, for the continent, and we look forward to continuing to create positive impact in the future”.

Giving further insights about the company, Anammah stated that their Pan-African presence provides strong strategic benefits for them, noting that Africa provides them access to reach about 700 million people in the 14 countries they are currently operating.

She explained that their mission is to leverage technology to improve everyday needs of African by providing sellers access to large and growing consumer base and localize seller center interface to ensure that there’s convergence between buyer and seller.

She revealed that results of the first quarter 2019, shows that Jumia continues to deliver on its strategy: strong growth, monetization increase, cost efficiency, JumiaPay development.

Anammah further stated that they recorded a Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) growth of 58 per cent leading to 102 per cent growth in marketplace revenue, year-on-year improvement of 356 basis points of operating loss as a percentage of GMV.