Steve Agbota

Jumia Nigeria, foremost e-commerce platform, has said that the growth of Nigeria’s telecom and mobile sector depends on the availability of affordable mobile phones and data tariff in the country, which would lead to the development and growth of the economy

In its mobile trends published in the 2017 Nigerian Mobile Report, Jumia examined how the market has democratised mobile Internet use, the consumer behaviours driving increased smartphone adoption and the role of the different stakeholders within the sector.

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In the report, Jumia said improvement in the sector over the coming years would require a collective, yet individual, effort from both the private and public sectors. To the former, Jumia is committed with its partners to facilitating and leading the charge in this regard.

In the preceding year, the report stated that “although the contribution of the telecom and mobile sector to the country’s GDP was indeed a small fraction, according to a report by the NCC, only 9.13 per cent directly or indirectly accrued from the sector, yet, it is worthy of note to mention that it was a great leap from the previous year. E-commerce companies like Jumia are facilitating the promotion and distribution of both high-end and low-end price points mobile phones in Nigeria. The NCC is not also relenting in exercising its power to regulate the operations of the licensed telecom operators, especially in the area of voice and data tariff.”

However, “Jumia is set to release the 2018 edition of the Mobile Report, which will focus on various mobile trends in the country and in Africa at large, and Juliet Anammah, CEO, Jumia Nigeria, is as excited as everyone else about the report.”

While examining the report, Jumia said there were about 150 million mobile subscribers, equivalent to 81 per cent penetration (as a percentage of the population) in 2016. Internet penetration was at 18 per cent with 216 million internet users while Nigeria’s internet penetration was much higher at 53 per cent; its mobile subscription was similar to Africa’s at 81 per cent penetration (960 million mobile subscribers).