Pan-African e-tailer Jumia has pledged its support towards women empowerment by creating opportunities within the company as well as within Nigerian society as a whole. International Women’s Day marks a good opportunity to reflect on the efforts that have been made since Jumia’s launch in 2012 and what still needs to be done.
The World Economic Forum estimates that it will take another 118 years, until 2133, to achieve global gender parity, defined here as equal opportunities between men and women in the economic, educational, political and societal spheres.
Despite a convergence of opinions in favor of gender parity in recent years, gender parity in the workforce remains a battle of each instant. Nearly a quarter of a billion more women are in the global workforce today, compared to a decade ago. Nonetheless, according to a study led by the UN, women are globally paid less than men and earn on average 60 to 75% of a man’s salary. The study also revealed there is a clear correlation between having more women in management positions and yielding greater returns on investment. Returns on investment would apparently be 34% higher in companies with a higher percentage of women in leadership positions.
This definitely applies to pan-African e-commerce Jumia which has one of the highest proportions of women leaders in Africa and globally, with a whopping 40% women managers, managing directors or CEOs. Jeremy Doutte, CEO Jumia Africa commenting on this figure declared “At Jumia, we nurture one value: “Let the best ideas and people grow”. Diversity is not a goal for Jumia, neither is gender parity. Diversity and gender parity are a reality at Jumia Africa. This has been achieved by letting all talents blossom, and women have benefited from our equal opportunity environment. Jumia has extremely talented women at all levels of the organization, across all countries. Our companies in Kenya and in Nigeria are led and managed by women and they are doing fantastically well. We truly believe this is just the beginning”.
As a company, Jumia is committed to actively promoting gender parity and women empowerment in Nigerian society through a series of actions.
- Jumia joined the International Women’s Day #PledgeforParity campaign to show our commitment to women empowerment. We also wish through this action to involve all of our colleagues, showing them that everyone has a role and a voice in promoting gender parity.
- Our JForce Program is reaching out to disadvantaged women and giving them financial independence: the program now comprises 16,000 women, the majority of which are housewives and stay at home mothers. The program aims at empowering and enriching entrepreneurs-to-be with the full support of an established brand, giving the opportunity to mothers to contribute to the household earnings. Women now represent 34% of the JForce Program.
- Jumia promotes small women entrepreneurs through its seller center: we offer them a distribution platform and thorough trainings which will help them grow their businesses.
- Jumia supports local women empowerment organizations such as Project Alert in Lagos and SheLeadsAfrica. Jumia organized informative sessions on our Seller and JForce programs to help women of Project Alert (victims of domestic violence) understand the opportunities that e-commerce open to them. We have also collaborated with SheLeadsAfrica, a platform for women entrepreneurs which built for us a series of trainings specifically designed for our JForce and Seller Center women members
- Jumia has also committed to improving gender parity within its own walls by creating the Africa Internet Group Women Committee, led by managing director of Jumia Nigeria Fatoumata Ba. The committee is there to protect women against any form of harassment they could experiment in the workforce as well as provide career counseling and mentoring.
Jumia wishes an excellent international women’s day to all men and women in Nigeria!