Vendors on the Jumia platform will have access to credit lending facilities launched by the ecommerce giant, in partnership with local banks.

Speaking to ITWeb Africa, Sacha Poignonnec, CEO of Jumia said that small business usually have no access to financing to augment their businesses.

"We have been working with vendors from the outset. By just talking to them, those businesses have a tough time accessing financial services. Many of them are small entrepreneurs and medium sized enterprises," he said.

The initiative will enable vendors sustain their supply chain and add more products to the platform.

With the data they will gather from the vendors, Jumia will develop a scoring metric and this will be used to determine who receives finances and how much can be accessed.

"There is an advanced analytic system behind the scoring. The more history we have with the vendor and the more business the vendor does on Jumia, the better the financing will be," Poignonnec said.

"This is good enough for us to bring them to the financial institutions and provide them with better financing," he added.

However, Jumia says that they will be testing with their own funds first in order to establish a pilot to present to external financial institutions.

Poignonnec clarified that those vendors who are financed will not be 'locked in' and will be free to supply to other platforms. "If our SME's become better, then it will benefit Jumia and everyone and we are ok with it."

Jumia aims to launch the programme with at least 100 vendors in Kenya and hundreds spread across Africa.

"It is important for us because SMEs are the heart of Jumia and of the economy. The programme will make the vendors, Jumia and the economy, better," said Poignonnec.