Jumia expands third-party delivery service to Nigeria in push for profitability
After shutting down Jumia Food, the e-commerce giant is now delivering for its rivals.
After years of building one of Africa’s largest logistics networks to serve its marketplace, Jumia is finally opening the doors to everyone else.
The company has officially launched Jumia Delivery in Nigeria, a third-party logistics service that lets anyone, from Instagram merchants to SMEs, send packages nationwide using Jumia’s infrastructure. It’s the second market to get the service after Côte d’Ivoire, and more countries, like Kenya, Ghana, and Senegal, are next in line.
It’s a big move for Jumia, especially as it tries to trim losses and reach profitability by 2027. The company already spends millions on fulfilment—$9.4 million in Q1 2025 alone—and sees this as a way to squeeze more value from its 494 pickup stations and last-mile fleet across Nigeria.
Kelechi Edeh
“This is a scalable business that extends our value proposition across the digital economy,” CEO Francis Dufay said during Jumia’s latest earnings call, framing the pivot as a revenue and efficiency play. The plan is to increase delivery volumes, cut fixed costs, and turn what used to be overhead into a new revenue stream.
Ironically, this now puts Jumia in direct competition with logistics startups it once operated separately from—Sendbox, Kwik, GIG Logistics, even delivery arms of Bolt and Indrive. And while those rivals have built brand equity, Jumia is betting that its scale and growing fintech integrations (like PalmPay) can tip the balance.
It’s a bold shift for a company that shut down Jumia Food in December 2023 after persistent losses. But instead of walking away from delivery altogether, Jumia’s betting on what it does best—moving packages, just now for sellers it once saw as competitors.
Whether social commerce merchants embrace Jumia Delivery remains to be seen. But in a space dominated by informal riders and hyperlocal networks, Jumia’s offering could be the next step in formalizing logistics for Africa’s small business boom.
Wisdom Okogho
