Jumia Drops Fast Delivery Promise in Some Countries

Jumia reported $50.5m in revenue for this year’s third quarter with declining operating losses (33%) and increasing gross profit (29%) compared to last year, while active customers and the value of services sold improved marginally. These results come out barely a week after the company’s co-CEOs since 2012 stepped down. The company said the results underscore its march towards profitability and that it will cut services that are out of line with that goal. A presence in 11 countries makes Jumia Africa’s largest online retailer, but the company’s activities will be more constrained going forward. “We cannot be sharp in our execution if we are spreading ourselves too thin across too many projects,” said Francis Dufay, the acting CEO who joined Jumia in 2014. The company will stop offering logistics as a service “in countries where logistics infrastructure is not yet ready to support third-party volumes.” It will be retained in Nigeria, Morocco, and Côte d’Ivoire.