World Bank Group Invests in Africa's Digital Commerce Infrastructure to Support Jobs and Small Businesses

Washington, D.C., August 12, 2026 — The World Bank Group is supporting the expansion of Africa's digital commerce infrastructure to help small businesses reach new markets, create jobs, and strengthen economic opportunities across the continent. Through Jumia (NYSE: JMIA), Africa's leading e-commerce platform, the investment is expected to enable approximately 60,000 local annual active sellers to participate more fully in the digital economy, support around 1,800 direct jobs, and create income-generating opportunities for more than 100,000 independent sales agents.

As digital commerce continues to grow across Africa, reliable access to online marketplaces, logistics networks, and digital payments are becoming increasingly important for entrepreneurs and small businesses seeking to expand beyond local markets. Strengthening this infrastructure can help firms increase sales, improve productivity, and connect consumers with a wider range of affordable goods and services.

To support this effort, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, is investing US$25 million in equity in Jumia Technologies AG (Jumia), Africa's largest public e-commerce platform. The investment will support Jumia's next phase of growth across its core African markets, strengthening its integrated marketplace and logistics network.

By expanding access to digital commerce tools and services, the investment will help businesses grow, improve price transparency, and contribute to more inclusive and resilient private sector development across Africa.

"The support of the World Bank Group is a milestone for Jumia and for African e-commerce more broadly. It validates both the discipline we have brought to our business in recent years and the tangible impact our platform has on small businesses, jobs, and consumers across our eight markets. With partners like the IFC, we can accelerate the digital commerce infrastructure Africa needs" said Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia.

“Jumia demonstrates how pan-African e-commerce platforms can expand economic opportunity at scale. Our investment supports the company’s next phase of growth while contributing to create jobs, digitizing supply chains and distributions channels and mobilizing private investment” said Farid Fezoua, Director for Equity, Funds, and Venture Capital at the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group.

About Jumia

Jumia is a leading pan-African e-commerce platform, with operations across 8 African countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of everyday life in Africa by leveraging technology to deliver innovative, convenient and affordable online services to customers, while helping businesses grow as they use Jumia's platform to better reach and serve customers.

The Jumia platform consists of a marketplace, which connects over 60,000 sellers with customers, a vast logistics network, which enables the shipment and delivery of packages from sellers to customers, and payment gateways, which, together with a network of licensed payment service providers and other partners, facilitate transactions among participants active on the Jumia platform in select markets.