E-commerce giant, Jumia, made headlines in Nigeria no longer than four years ago after securing a 300 plus million dollars funding from MTN and German start-up incubator, Rocket Internet.

It also welcomed to its capital two household international institutions: one of the worlds largest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, and a renowned French insurer, AXA.

According the company, these investments set a new record in Africas start-up scene and propelled Jumia to the unicorn status.

It said that the majority of these investments would be oriented towards further growing Jumia Nigeria, which would be celebrating her fourth anniversary very soon – in April, 2016.

These new investments should encourage us all in this period of recession. The gloomy economic outlook of Nigeria in 2016 has not prevented investment companies from betting on our start-ups and showing appetite for our technology sector.

Furthermore, this renewed vote of confidence reasserts the massive potential of online commerce in an environment where the ecosystem that supports it is not yet fully developed, Jumia said in a statement.

The statement also read, As we celebrate the e-commerces fourth year of existence in April 2016, let us deep-dive and explore the transformations e-commerce has instilled into the Nigerian economy and the challenges e-commerce will have to face in 2016.

So much has changed since 2012: Nigeria is changing at the speed of light, showing resilience and entrepreneurial drive like no other country. Lagos has become a tech centre, welcoming innovative start-ups battling to improve services in varied sectors: online supermarkets, online fashion stores, logistics provider for e-commerce, online food delivery platforms, online car and real estate service providers, online taxi services.

These are blossoming like a wild flower. Four years ago however, Lagos tech start-up scene looked very much like a 1980s Dubai: a bare land animated by the vision of turning it into a megalopolis and the drive of a few entrepreneurs convinced it would one day become one of the most attractive cities in the world.

It added that Jumia knew when it started in 2012 that it would have to adapt to Nigerias specificities and completely rethink e-commerce as we knew it, both from the demand and the supply perspectives.

We strongly believe in the resilience of the Nigerian economy and are convinced it will pull through very soon, Managing Director of Jumia Nigeria, Fatoumata Ba, said.

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