Jumia, realme partner to boost smartphone adoption in Africa

L-R: Sandeep Narayanan, VP, Consumer Electronics, Jumia; Jack Zhang, general manager of realme CIS & MEA region, during realme partnership launch with Jumia.

Jumia, one of the leading pan-African e-commerce platform, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with realme, a fast growing smartphone brand, which would provide millions of consumers in Africa access to innovative and trendsetting devices with the latest technology.

The agreement allows for realme to have an official store on Jumia’s platform that would connect it with online consumers across 11 African countries, initially including Nigeria and gradually expanding to Kenya, Ghana, and Ivory Coast, and thereafter to the remaining African countries where Jumia operates.

“We are delighted to begin exploring how we might offer our platform to realme and provide it with the opportunity to grow and access the African market. Both of our companies share similar values and we look forward to a collaboration that would provide Jumia’s consumers access to best-in-class, affordable smartphones via Jumia’s seamless shopping experience,” Sandeep Narayanan, VP, Consumer Electronics, Jumia said.

“We are thrilled to partner with Jumia, the leading e-commerce platform in Africa, to bring our smartphones to users across the continent. This partnership reflects our ongoing commitment to technology decentralisation by making technology that used to be only in flagship models to be accessible to more consumers. We believe the young generation in Africa will find our products to have the best side of performance and of trendsetting design, as it is our mission to scale innovation with trend for consumers in the world,” Jack Zhang, general-manager of realme CIS & MEA region, said.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s fastest-growing mobile regions and millions of African mobile users use a smartphone to access Jumia for their everyday needs. With this in mind, we look forward to further enhancing the penetration of e-commerce in the region,” Narayanan added.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.