Jumia Kenya - Afrikan Heroes

Jumia Kenya Names Third CEO in Two Years: Key Reasons Behind the Leadership Changes

April 15, 2023

Jumia Kenya, the e-commerce platform, has announced the appointment of Charles Ballard as its new CEO. This comes after the company went through two CEOs in just two years, raising concerns about the stability of its leadership.

Betty Mwangi was appointed as CEO in November 2020, succeeding Sam Chappatte. However, she left the position just one year later, and Juan Seco took over in July 2022. Seco, who had served with Jumia for eight years, has now left to join Mukuru, a pan-African fintech company, as Chief Growth Officer and MD East Africa.

Charles Ballard has been with Jumia Kenya since 2019, starting as the Head of Performance and Planning before being promoted to Chief Operating Officer in 2021 and then Senior Vice President-Commercials in 2022. Before joining Jumia, he worked as a Retail Consultant at Sagaci Research and Deputy CFO at ACTED.

Jumia Kenya has recorded losses of $87.8 million (KSh 11.6 billion) since its establishment in May 2013. The losses increased by $9 million (KSh 1.2 billion) in 2021, up from $78.8 million (KSh 10.6 billion) in 2020. The company also reported a loss of $72.7 million (KSh 9.7 billion) in 2019, signalling a consecutive decrease in its revenue.

Out of its ten global markets, Jumia reported a gross loss of KSh 99 billion in the same year. However, the company plans to use the accumulated losses to offset future taxes once it rebounds to profit.

Ballard’s appointment comes as Jumia Kenya looks to increase its online shopping sales, particularly in rural areas where over 70% of the population resides. The platform has over 11,000 sellers countrywide and more than 1,000 pick-up stations.

In his statement, Ballard expressed his excitement at continuing to drive the e-commerce narrative in rural Kenya, where access to modern retail is a challenge, and e-commerce can bring better prices, more choices, and convenience to rural Kenyans. He hopes to leverage his experience to grow Jumia’s online marketplace and increase its coverage in rural areas.

Jumia loss grew by KSh 1.2 billion to hit KSh 11.6 billion. — *Jumia Kenya CEO Charles Ballard. Photo: Jumia Kenya*

The appointment of Charles Ballard as Jumia Kenya’s new CEO is a step towards stabilizing the company’s leadership and increasing its online shopping sales. However, it remains to be seen whether the company can turn its losses into profits and achieve long-term success.

Jumia Kenya has been recording losses since it set up its base in May 2013, with a cumulative loss of $87.8 million (KSh 11.6 billion) in nearly nine months. In 2019 alone, the company reported a loss of $72.7 million (KSh 9.7 billion), indicating a consecutive decline in revenue.

The increasing focus on rural areas is another reason for the change. Charles Ballard, the new CEO, has expressed his desire to drive the e-commerce narrative in rural Kenya, where more than 70% of the population lives. He believes that access to modern retail is a challenge in these areas, which presents a significant opportunity for growth in Jumia’s online marketplace.

Moreover, Jumia Kenya has struggled to develop a strategy that addresses the unique challenges of the Kenyan market. The company has not been able to keep up with the fast-changing dynamics of the e-commerce sector, leading to a series of leadership changes.

The competitive landscape of the e-commerce sector in Kenya has intensified, making it more challenging for Jumia to maintain its market share. Local and international players have entered the market, creating more competition.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

Airtel Money Payments Partners Jumia in Kenya

September 30, 2020

Jumia’s Head of Financial Services, Nelly Movine

Africa’s leading e-commerce giant Jumia has partnered with Airtel Kenya in an agreement that will see consumers complete their online payment transactions using Airtel Money. Speaking on the development, Jumia’s Head of Financial Services, Nelly Movine said that “millions of Kenyans rely on mobile money daily to make fast payments. By expanding our payment options to include Airtel money, it will make it easier for more consumers to incorporate online shopping as part of their daily transactions.”

“We are delighted to be working with Jumia on this exciting partnership to enhance customer experience on the Jumia platform. We are committed to working with partners who are instrumental in promoting financial inclusion through our Airtel money services. This partnership will allow Airtel customers to shop conveniently online by using their Airtel Money wallet from wherever, at whatever time using their data enabled devices,” said Airtel Kenya, Managing Director, Prasanta Das Sarma.

Kenya is now the latest of the Jumia markets to have this payment option at checkout after Ghana and Uganda who use Airtel Money. This is a key partnership to drive the use of Airtel Money on key platforms like ecommerce. Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are shopping online. Contactless payments like mobile money are popular ways to pay for goods and services online and Airtel wants to make Airtel Money visible to its customers.

Airtel Kenya, Managing Director, Prasanta Das Sarma

When you want to use Airtel Money at checkout, enter your Airtel number when paying, get a USSD push, enter your Airtel Money PIN and hit send. This news follows the partnership between Airtel Money and Standard Chartered as well as MoneyGram last month which makes it viable to their customers.

As per the latest statistics from the Communications Authority of Kenya, Airtel Money has over 329,000 registered users who moved 351 million shillings between customers to business in the first 3 months of the year.

Kelechi Deca

Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry

COVID-19: Twiga Foods Partners With Jumia To Deliver Kenyan Online Shoppers Fresh Produce

April 25, 2020

Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya’s chief executive

Twiga Foods, the Kenyan startup that delivers fruits and vegetable to customers is obviously trying to squeeze out every business opportunity occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. It has partnered with African e-commerce giant Jumia Kenya to further expand their distribution capacities in the wake of movement restrictions as part of measures taken to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

“Our partnership with Twiga will allow customers to shop on Jumia for the fruits and vegetables they need. We are offering same-day free delivery on the platform in Nairobi. And will save customers money as Twiga cuts out the middlemen by buying directly from smallholder farmers across the country,” said Sam Chappatte, Jumia Kenya’s chief executive.

Here Is All You Need To Know

The distribution deal will allow online shoppers to order for fresh farm produce and processed foodstuffs from Twiga Foods on Jumia’s platform.
Pre-packed bundles will cost between Sh1,230 to Sh3,180 ($12 to $30) and consist of items such as watermelon, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, bananas, maize meal and processed milk.
The partnership will leverage on Twiga’s existing infrastructure and Jumia’s extensive e-commerce platform and logistics network to make home deliveries across Nairobi’s suburbs.
Twiga has depots in Dagoretti, Donholm, Embakasi, Thome, Ruaka, Kaloleni, Nairobi West, Syokimau, Waiyaki Way and Kilimani.
Twiga Foods sources farm produce from more than 15,000 producers and delivers to over 5,000 retailers a day.
The firms said that by bringing their capabilities together, they aim to offer an unrivalled delivery service for food, providing fresh, high quality products directly to people’s homes across Nairobi.

“Our vision as a company has been to lower the amount of money consumers are spending on food. Through this partnership, we will pass on to consumers the price benefit of sourcing directly from farmers and food manufacturers. Case in point is our Twiga Fresh bundle that offers a 50 percent discount to the prevailing market prices,” said Twiga Food Chief Executive Officer Mr Peter Njonjo.

A Look At What Twiga Foods Does

Twiga Foods is going after the Kenyan food sector to break the jinx of inefficiencies presently in the sector, and to ensure that the limited resources available in Kenya’s agricultural sector are well-utilised.

Its simple business model is to aggregate all food retailers and dealers, from the banana vendors buying in bulk to the avocado retailers selling in stock, and then connecting them to Kenyan farmers producing quality farm produce. This is a classic example of a business-to-business (B2B) model, so that vendors looking to purchase agricultural produce don’t have to travel miles to meet local producers of the produce, thereby saving them the transportation and logistics cost, increasing the productivity and demand for the produce of the farmers, at the same time reducing food waste.

These metrics are what TLCom Capital looked out for when it invested in Twiga Foods.

“TLcom’s general investment thesis for Africa is that given the high penetration of mobile, there are very large markets where demand is already proven and technology can play a true role in offering a superior value proposition over existing solutions,” said Ido Sum, partner at TLCom Capital which syndicated Twiga Foods’ recent $30 million fund raising led by Goldman Sachs.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.