The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) have partnered with Jumia to help digitize Kenya’s businesses, help them grow their digital sales and save jobs as COVID-19 deals an economic blow on businesses.
Through the Digital Commerce Program, KEPSA and Jumia said thousands of businesses will be registered and trained to sell online with access to over four million Kenyans that visit Jumia’s platform monthly,
“We will commit resources to support KEPSA’s Digital Commerce initiative, to train vendors & give them the tools to sell online effectively. We hope this will save jobs in the short term, and help digitize the economy over the longer term,” Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya CEO, said in a statement .
The initiative will see businesses register and open their shops on Jumia at zero start-up costs and no hidden costs.
Chappatte said Jumia will cut its commissions on vendors by 50 percent for locally manufactured goods and to one percent for all businesses enrolling via the Digital Commerce Program for their first month on the platform.
“It is widely expected that these businesses will list on other online platforms to grow their sales further,” Carole Karuga, KEPSA CEO, said.
Jumia will provide free online training, ranging from the basics of e-commerce to operations, marketing, finance and sales.
The initial phase of the Program will be limited to Nairobi, with a view to scale it out to other counties.
