Mobile is traverse and it is becoming the daily point of activity all over the globe. The yester-years offered us products that we could only use on a shared basis but the advancement in technology and popularity of its usage allows everyone to access something from their proximity via a mobile handset.
Jumia is well versed with the mobile trends, given their unique exposure with what the clients need and what they can have, and it is on this basis that they have released the Mobile White Paper for the past two years – in 2017 and 2018.
This year’s Jumia Mobile Report digs deep into the latest mobile trends, in Uganda and Africa as a whole, and sets an insight on the future of the industry based on the findings.
According to the report, mobile subscription penetration is currently closing in to 80%, with about 25 million Ugandans having a mobile device on their own.
The 2019 Jumia Mobile Report Numbers
Internet Penetration
With the statistics pointing at a possible population of 44.5 million for Uganda, the Internet penetration stands at 19 million users, of which 2.5 million of these are active social media users. This implies that 42% of the population have access to the internet, and 5.6% uses the access for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Telegram, and the likes.
Increased smartphone relevance
The market forces of demand will always determine the supply of products as long as there is competition. Jumia reports a 50% fall in the average price of smartphones over a span of 3 years, something that can be attributed to the increased need for owning these.
In 2014, Jumia recorded the average price of a smartphone at 165 USD (approx. UGX 609,906), a value that dropped by +50% in 3 years, to register about 82 USD (approx. UGX 303,104) in 2018.
– 2019 Jumia Mobile Report
The price fall has been heavily capitalized by Jumia customers, with a 5-times growth in smartphones sales evident on the platform.
Entry-level and mid-range smartphone manufacturers have continued to thrive and capture the market further than the high-end product OEMs. The report indicates a leadership board of Tecno, Samsung, Infinix, Nokia, and Apple over the past year – in regards to brand loyalty.
The 2018 statistics put the smartphone adoption in Africa at 36% with 255 million handsets out on the market, and Jumia projects that this figure rise up to 690 million by the end of 2025.
Mobile Payments still low in Uganda
Ugandans have a lot of respect for cash, and the alternative means brought forward have only been a means to exchange the cash – but not to kill it. Almost all of the people who use mobile money only do so to send and receive, but engage less in making payments via the platform.
The Jumia mobile report indicates that a small portion of Jumia customers actually pay for transactions via mobile. Most prefer doing cash, possibly because of the need to see what they are paying for initially, before they can clear the bill.
6% of the transactions are done through Mobile Money and 95% through other payment methods (cash or pre-payments). This can be related to the trend of mobile payments in Africa, with approximately 50% of the global mobile money services being in Africa.
– 2019 Jumia Mobile Report
At continent level, the busiest country when it comes to using mobile money is Kenya, followed by Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda. The four combined account for up to 100 million active mobile money accounts and transactions that amount to $2.1 billion.
