Jumia Nigeria has announced that its 2017 Black Friday festival recorded its highest figures ever since the introduction of the event in Nigeria in 2013.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria, Juliet Anammah, stated that the Black Friday festival, held in partnership with Intel, Pampers, Infinix, Philips, among others, had attracted more than 14 million visits since the commencement of the campaign on November 13.

According to her, this year’s Black Friday demonstrated the increasing capacity and flexibility of the online retail space in Nigeria.

“We delivered to the 36 states across Nigeria, and we were able to reach the neighbourhoods and shoppers who traditionally do not have access to a wide variety of products and deals,” she said.

Anammah, who described Black Friday as the busiest and largest shopping day of the year on both online and offline stores, stated that the 2017 edition reflected the increasing relevance of the special shopping period to the average Nigerian.

She also said the items sold on the 2017 big bang day was 174 per cent more compared to the items sold in 2016.

She however revealed that 85 per cent of all visits were made on mobile devices, with the Tecno T401 recording the highest number of orders.

Anammah also announced Jumia’s latest partnership with Dangote Cement, stating that it was a strategic decision because this was the perfect time to build.

According to her, Dangote Cement can now be bought on Jumia and can only be delivered to customers in Lagos, Abuja and Port-Harcourt.

Speaking at the event, the Key Account Director, Dangote Cement, Mr. Mogbolu Chux, described collaboration with Jumia as a partnership for life.

According to him, the partnership will enable customers to purchase bags of cement for as low as N2,500 and have it delivered within 48 hours from the time of placing an order.

He gave the minimum quantity of cement that could be bought at once as 300 bags, adding that as the demand increased, the quantity would reduce.

He said, “Dangote Cement decided to work with Jumia Nigeria based on its credibility and excellent performance over the years in online shopping management”, adding that the new initiative would help arrest the scams perpetrated by online fraudsters who deceived the people by asking them to come and purchase Dangote Cement for N1000 per bag.”