How investors smiled to the bank on Jumia's first trading day on the New York Stock Exchange

By implication, this means that for an investor that keyed into Jumia shares at the beginning of trading on Friday for any particular amount would have gained exactly $6.51 per share on investment.

The first trading showed that there is a great future for e-commerce ventures in Africa and the likes of Amazon and Alibaba are already in the way and that Jumia, the loss-making e-commerce platform will come out stronger in the long run.

A woman works at the packaging unit at a warehouse for an online store, Jumia in Ikeja district, in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos June 10, 2016. Reuters

The trading figures:

Open price 18.95
Closing price: 25.46
Volume of trading: 9,472,324
Market cap: $1.9 billion, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-founders and co-chief executives, said, “this achievement has been made possible thanks to the hard work of our teams, the trust of our consumers, as well as the commitment of our sellers and partners.

“All stakeholders deserve credit for this milestone, and we are just at the beginning of a long and great journey. We are going to continue to focus on our mission and to work even harder to help consumers, sellers, partners and all stakeholders benefit from this technological revolution.”

Jumia currently operates across six regions in Africa, which consist of 14 countries connecting sellers with consumers.

Started 2012 in Lagos, Jumia said it's mission is to improve the quality of everyday life in Africa, by leveraging technology to deliver innovative, convenient and affordable online services to consumers.

Operating under “JMIA,” some of its core investors include MTN Group Ltd, French drinks maker Pernod Ricard, Rocket Internet SE, MasterCard and others.

NOTE: This market capitalisation figure has been edited.