African e-commerce company Jumia has announced its revenues fell by 41.7% to EUR84.4 million in 2016, which the company has put down to a decrease in gross merchandise volume and its shift to a marketplace model.

This information is contained in the annual report from Jumia owner Rocket Internet, which reports a significant decline in revenues from the EUR144.6 million posted in 2015. Part of this was due to a switch in model, which means only commissions are booked as revenue instead of the merchandise value.

Jumia - which is Africa's leading online company with operations in 35 countries - saw gross merchandise volume decrease by 13.6% to EUR276.9 million in 2016, which the report said was driven by the downturn in the macro-economic environment in its largest markets, Nigeria and Egypt, which resulted in FX scarcity and devaluation.

Gross profit margin amounted to 36.5% in 2016, an increase of 19.5 percentage points compared from 2015. Adjusted EBITDA improved, and as of the end of 2016 the company's net working capital was EUR -11.6 million.

Jumia was formerly known as Africa Internet Group (AIG) but completed a rebranding of all its services under the Jumia brand in 2016, which Rocket Internet said had a positive impact on traffic and brand awareness. The company employs over 3,000 people.

Overall, Rocket Internet's revenue fell by 61% to EUR50.4 million, with losses totalling EUR741.5 million. Jumia was the only one of its portfolio companies to report a decline in revenue.

Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet, said 2016 saw its companies progress on their path towards profitability, while demonstrating further growth.

"In 2016, Rocket Internet continued to make progress on the execution of its strategy. In particular, we focused on reducing the complexity at the group level, as well as at the individual company level and continued to show steady improvements across our selected companies. Furthermore, we continued to identify new and attractive online business models and companies," he said.

"Our business model remains unchanged. We build and invest in great internet companies around the globe and support our companies with operational expertise and capital over their development lifecycle, thereby enabling entrepreneurship and providing our shareholders with a diversified exposure to the global Internet sector."