Invest Kenya CEO John Mwendwa and Vinod Goel, Managing Director of Jumia East Africa./HANDOUT
Invest Kenya and Jumia Kenya have officially committed to work together to improve the country's e-commerce sector.
The two entities aim to help the digital marketplace thrive, driving fresh investment, innovation, job creation, and inclusive economic growth across the nation.
The strategic commitment was solidified during a high-level meeting at the Jumia East Africa headquarters in Nairobi.
The session brought together a delegation led by Invest Kenya CEO John Mwendwa and Vinod Goel, the Managing Director of Jumia East Africa.
During the discussions, Mwendwa highlighted Invest Kenya’s core role in promoting and safeguarding investments. He emphasised that the agency achieves this through close collaboration with key government entities, including the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Customs, and various sector ministries.
Invest Kenya CEO John Mwendwa and Vinod Goel, Managing Director of Jumia East Africa./HANDOUT
Goel shared Jumia’s ongoing pledge to Kenya as a leading pan-African e-commerce platform. He outlined the company's substantial contributions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) growth, digital skills development, employment, and expanded market access.
The meeting underscored how e-commerce is reshaping Kenya’s investment landscape, especially with up to 70% of Kenyans living in rural areas.
As digital adoption accelerates, digital platforms are increasingly connecting underserved communities to vital products, services, and economic opportunities. Strikingly, orders from secondary cities and rural areas now account for 60% of Jumia’s total orders.
To support this rural expansion, Jumia highlighted its massive nationwide infrastructure. The network includes more than 300 pick-up stations across Kenya and over 26,000 JForce agents who actively support digital literacy, entrepreneurship, and last-mile access.
Additionally, Jumia has successfully increased the share of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on its marketplace from 40% to 60%, helping local businesses scale.
“All the indicators are helping us. While the markets outside are tough, Jumia Kenya is growing in double-digit numbers. We would wish your policies would be super good so that we, as e-commerce players, operate on best practices, not unfair advantage,” Goel stated.
The leaders also tackled critical policy issues affecting the digital economy, such as taxation, marketplace regulation, and the need for a level playing field between locally established businesses and non-resident operators.
Both organisations emphasised that collaborative policymaking is vital to attract investment and strengthen Kenya’s competitiveness as a regional digital hub.
“We wanted to understand the dynamics of the products you sell across the country, especially locally produced goods to help build a case for investors. We must support you to grow and scale,” Mwendwa said.
