Pan-African e-commerce platform Jumia has entered into a partnership with smartphone brand realme to roll out new devices and increase competition within Africa’s high-growth smartphone adoption market.

The two companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) according to which realme will have an official store on Jumia’s platform that would connect it with online consumers across 11 African countries.

In a statement the companies add that the agreement covers Nigeria initially, but is expected to gradually expand to Ghana, Kenya, Ghana and Ivory Coast, and thereafter to the remaining African countries where Jumia operates.

Sandeep Narayanan, VP, Consumer Electronics, Jumia, said, “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.”

Jack Zhang, General Manager of realme CIS & MEA region, 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.”

Narayanan added, “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.”