Africa’s leading e-commerce giant, Jumia, has unveiled its Q2 2023 financial results, revealing a significant 28.1% drop in its customer base. This decline can be attributed to the relentless impact of inflation on its primary operational markets, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt.

The company’s active consumer count plummeted by 1 million year-on-year, settling at 2.4 million in Q2 2023 compared to the 3.4 million registered during the same period the previous year. Moreover, Jumia’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), indicating the total value of goods sold on the platform, experienced a sharp 25.1% decrease, dwindling from $271.1 million in Q2 2022 to $202.3 million in Q2 2023.

These disappointing results follow Jumia’s recording of accumulated losses of approximately $2 billion in the third quarter of 2022.

Highlighting the extent of the downturn, the platform’s orders for products also took a nosedive, plummeting by 36.5%. In a direct comparison, the company went from processing 10.3 million orders in Q2 2022 to a mere 6.5 million in the same period this year.

Jumia Group’s CEO, Francis Dufay, emphasized that despite the dip in revenue and dwindling customer numbers, the company remains steadfast in its pursuit of loss reduction and the journey toward profitability. Dufay affirmed, “In the second quarter of 2023, both Adjusted EBITDA and Operating losses decreased by 66% year-over-year, reaching the lowest loss levels in over 4 years.”

In light of these achievements, Dufay announced an updated Adjusted EBITDA loss guidance for the entirety of 2023, now projected at $90-100 million, a revision from the previous estimate of $100-120 million. He explained, “We are navigating challenging macro conditions with discipline and focus, doubling down on our efficiency efforts.”

Dufay acknowledged the hardships posed by inflation in Nigeria, Ghana, and Egypt, emphasizing the erosion of purchasing power among consumers in these markets. He noted, “Usage performance continued to be affected by the difficult operating environment with record levels of inflation impacting consumers’ spend as well as sellers’ ability to source goods.”