CC image courtesy of Shardayyy, on Flickr.
Ercin Ecsin, interim managing director and chief operating officer of Jumia Africa, has identified naira denominations as a major challenge to e-commerce operations in Nigeria.
Speaking at Jumia’s e-commerce summit, Ecsin said too many currency notes are exchanged every time a customer uses the e-commerce platform’s pay on delivery option.
“Nigeria’s highest currency is the NGN1,000 note (US$6.20) . To buy products such as iPhones, a customer would need about 100 of such just for an iPhone. This is quite large compared to other countries where fewer denominations are needed,” he said.
He added that other challenges the company is facing in Nigeria include trust which he said is still in its early stages in the e-commerce sector.
This, he said, was a result of the betrayal of trust in the advent of internet access in Nigeria.
“The trust challenge is still there and it was as a result of the actions of those who abused the system during its early days,” he said.
He added there is also a challenge with time and place of delivery.
“People may order at work where they have internet access, but will be at home in the evening. So our dispatchers may not meet them at work from where the order was made. Even when we meet them at work, a meeting could be going on and the MD would not want to leave the meeting to receive his order,” Ecsin said.
