BREAKING: Jumia narrows losses to $16.5 million in Q1 ’25 as currency problems pressure revenues

Jumia, Africa’s prominent online retailer, reported a $16.5 million pre-tax loss for the first quarter of 2025, a result that underscores its ongoing efforts to curb losses. While the figure represents a considerable improvement over the past eight quarters, revenue contracted sharply to $36.3 million, a 26% year-over-year decline. This fall exceeded analysts’ projections of a more moderate revenue drop to $37.36 million.

The company attributed the revenue slump to significant currency devaluations and a notable decrease in corporate sales, particularly within its Egyptian market, when compared to the same period last year.

First-party sales revenue was $17.8 million, down 21% year-over-year or down 9% on a constant currency basis, similarly impacted by lower first-party corporate sales in Egypt and currency movements.

“Driven by strong underlying growth in our core consumer business and decisive actions to improve efficiency, we are updating our financial outlook,” said CEO Francis Dufay, who remained optimistic.

“We believe to be on track for the fourth quarter of 2026, targeting full-year profitability on a loss before income tax basis in 2027. These updates reflect positive momentum and our commitment to achieving profitability.”

Key takeaways:

• Jumia’s reported revenue of $36.3 million for Q1 2025
• Operational losses grew to $18.7 million
• Quarterly active users grew to 2.1 million

The value of total orders (GMV) declined to $161.7 million despite the number of orders increasing 12% year-over-year to 5.1 million. Adjusted for perimeter effects, orders from upcountry regions represented 58% of total orders in the first quarter of 2025, up from 50% in the prior-year period. Operating losses widened to $18.7 million, compared to $8.3 million in the same period last year.

This quarter, Jumia attracted 2.1 million customers compared to 1.9 million in Q1 2024. It will continue to leverage low-cost acquisition channels involving radio jingles, SEO and CRM strategies to retain customers.

Jumia has taken several steps to improve its financial performance, including exiting non-core markets and raising capital through a secondary share offering. However, achieving profitability remains a significant challenge due to ongoing economic uncertainties.

Regarding cash efficiency, Jumia has a cash balance of $61.6 million and a liquidity position of $110.7 million. The company said the liquidity position decreased by $23.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, compared to a decrease of $19.1 million in the first quarter of 2024, and a decrease of $30.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Net cash used in operating activities rose to $21.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, primarily driven by a negative working capital contribution of $8.0 million, largely reflecting higher inventory levels built up to ensure product availability and assortment ahead of the Jumia Anniversary campaign.

The yearly event is set to launch in early May, earlier than in 2024. In addition, the company reported $0.9 million in capital expenditures in the first quarter.

JumiaPay transactions reached $2 million by March 2025, up 1% year-over-year. The growth was driven by increased penetration of JumiaPay on delivery in Q1 2025. There are also ongoing efforts to streamline the user experience to increase cashless orders, positioning the payment arm as an enabler of the company’s e-commerce architecture

Today, Jumia’s share price has fallen 4%, demonstrating a depreciating level of shareholder confidence. The stock currently trades at $2.40 at the time of this report.