“Classic retail will never be able to meet Africa's increased demand"

Africa Internet Group CEO, Jeremy Hodara, believes only online retail will be able to meet Africa’s increased demand, obviously seeing a lot of opportunities for his own company, which is currently active in 26 African countries.

Very ambitious

Africa Internet Group, founded about four years ago partially thanks to German Rocket Internet‘s investment, tripled its 288 million euro turnover last year. However, its ambitions are far greater, which is also why it continued to invest and why it is still onerous.

“If we halt our marketing investments, then we will no longer grow, but we would make some money. However, we believe that fast growth and an increased market share will create value. We do not want to become Africa’s largest eCommerce website, but its largest distributor and we will do everything to reach that goal”, Hodara told French LSA.

Currently, the group is active in 26 African countries through a myriad of other companies: in Nigeria, Jumia is the largest eCommerce website, but it also has Kaymu to refer to smaller retailers and AIGx is its own logistics company.

Problems with infrastructure and safety

Hodara feels there is room to grow for Africa’s online retail, where physical retail faces plenty of problems. For example, there are only two shopping centers In Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos. Physical retailers have plans to expand, but Hodara says they can never do that fast enough, because the country’s infrastructure does not suffice and simply because it is not a safe place.

As Africa’s physical retail landscape is underdeveloped, he feels that eCommerce can grab 30 to 40 % of total revenue. By comparison, eCommerce represents about 20 % of American total turnover.