Jumia Group has announced the appointment of its former Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Juliet Anammah as the new Chairwoman, Jumia Nigeria and Head of Institutional Affairs across Africa.
In the same vein, Massimiliano Spalazzi was appointed to replace Anammah as the new CEO, Jumia Nigeria.
The appointment was announced by Jumia Group’s co-CEO and co-founder, Jeremy Hodara during the company’s press conference held in Lagos.
Spalazzi, who will retain his current designation as Executive Vice President, Marketplace (formerly Kaymu) for Jumia Group, joined the company in 2012 as the head of its online marketplace. He also served as CEO for Jumia Emerging Countries between January 2015 – January 2019 and CEO Jumia market from January 2015 – September 2017.
Speaking about the appointment, Hodara says it’s a sign of growth that comes with working for a company like Jumia. He expects more of such promotions from within the company.
Jumia’s hurdles: Jumia faced some challenges in 2019, which led to the shutting down of Jumia Travel in Nigeria and Jumia Food in Rwanda. Nairametrics also reported when Jumia shut down its operations in Cameroon and Tanzania, citing low performance in those markets.
While commenting on some of the hurdles faced by the company, Hodara stated that Jumia had grown stronger.
“We tried many opportunities and strategies. We take a lot of time to invest in a lot of things we do. Challenges are the ability to grow new talents and sustain the business. Jumia is not positioned to be the only e-commerce company but to be the best in the space. Jumia is pledging to continuously improve in order to satisfy our customers and explore e-commerce potential. We are here to stay,” he said.
Plans for 2020: As one of its strategies to drive business growth in Nigeria this year, the company is reportedly relying on the increased usage of its payment platform, Jumia Pay.
According to the new CEO, Jumia also plans to focus on over 10,000 vendor partners in Nigeria to strengthen their relationship with consumers and offer them value-added services that will make them further grow their business.
In the area of logistics, Spalazzi said Jumia would continue to work with and grow the best logistics companies in the county in 2020, in addition to offering training that would boost growth opportunities.