Tech in Africa
Young people across Kenya have an opportunity to make as much as $1000 a month by participating in Jumia’s new eCommerce platform program. Jumia currently employs 5,000 people in Africa and runs a marketplace that supports hundreds of thousands of sellers, sales agents, and logistic partners. In rural Kenya, the country is witnessing an expansion in pick-up stations, which is likely to see the number grow even more.
As a private sector player, Jumia looks to create economic opportunities for the young by launching the ‘Jumia City Partner Program’ in Western, Mount Kenya, Nyanza, Western and Coastal regions. The idea is to empower local businesses by improving revenues and providing better services to customers.
The PUS agents will help customers place orders online on the e-commerce platform in a program that will help companies in rural areas earn extra income while serving as Jumia representatives in those regions. Large numbers of university students are registering to be Jumia Independent PUS agents. That way they also help in educating the rural communities by selling goods to the local schools, markets, and community groups.
According to the last census results, 80% of the Kenya’s population is below 35 years with over 800,000 young people enter the workforce annually. 5,341,182 which is 39% of the entire youthful population of 13,777,600 is unemployed. Despite the economic growth witnessed in the last decade, most of the jobs created are low-paying and informal work and too slow to absorb the number of jobseekers.
