United Parcel Services, UPS, a global logistics and package delivery company has entered into a partnership with Jumia to access the e-commerce firm’s delivery infrastructure across many African countries.
The new partnership is expected to enable UPS customers pick-up or drop-off packages for sending across the world at Jumia’s stations in Kenya, Morocco and Nigeria and this would be further expanded to Ghana and Ivory Coast, and the rest of its markets in Africa.
For Jumia, however, the deal will expectedly enable the e-commerce firm to leverage UPS’s network across 220 countries and territories to help users deliver their packages.
What they are saying
While Jumia began building its logistics business seven years ago, it opened its logistics business in 2020 to third parties after exclusively reserving it for e-commerce and food vendors operating on its marketplace.
Apoorva Kumar, Jumia’s senior vice president of Logistics, said, “At the beginning of our journey – launch of the e-commerce platform 10 years ago, logistics infrastructure was one of the most challenging aspects of our operating environment. This challenge was a catalyst for us to build an unparalleled logistics platform in Africa offering our sellers and consumers reliable, convenient and cost-effective delivery services.”
He added, “Today, we are helping other businesses overcome these infrastructure challenges by giving them access to our logistics platform. We are delighted and humbled by the opportunity to partner up with UPS, a global logistics leader, to offer them last mile solutions in Africa. We view this as a validation of the strength of our logistics platform as well as an incentive to double down on our efforts to further enhance our services and build a world-class logistics business in Africa.”
Gregory Goba Ble, UPS vice president of engineering and operations for Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa said, “UPS’s asset-light approach, like the Jumia partnership, offers a pathway for businesses to quickly and reliably connect to new customers around the world through our global network, potentially accelerating their revenue growth.”
