E-commerce company Jumia has unveiled plans to upgrade its payment solutions in Egypt and Nigeria, where it is the most active. In the first country, the company said it has reached an agreement with vaIU, a financial technology services company, to develop a solution that will allow its local customers to buy goods and pay for them over time (BNPL, Buy Now and Pay Later).

In its main market, Nigeria, Jumia said it has added new services to its payment app. “On the JumiaPay app, we continued adding more relevant everyday services. In Nigeria, we set up an integration with Quickteller, the largest billing aggregator in Nigeria. This partnership allows us to offer over 70 additional billers on the JumiaPay app, including Government services, internet service providers, airlines, and many more,” the company said.

To comply with the Central Bank's requirements, Jumia agreed to partner with a third-party payment service provider to process card transactions via JumiaPay. “This change, which is expected to take effect in March 2022, may temporarily affect the payment experience in Nigeria and negatively impact payment volumes on the platform,” Jumia warned.

JumiaPay's technology enabled the group, now listed on Nasdaq (the main U.S. tech stock market), to channel $263.3 million worth of payments for more than 12.1 million transactions. This represents 34.7% of overall customer payments, up from 33.1% a year earlier. The value of goods purchased through the Jumia platform approached $1 billion in 2021, up 3.21% compared to that of 2020.

Jumia continues to grow its customer base, which was nearly 4 million in 2021. The improvement of its payment systems and compliance with regulatory requirements are important steps in its development.