Jumia, an e-commerce retail company has announced they will close their 60-person Dubai office and focus their business on Africa only.
Acting head of Jumia, Francis Dufay, said managers will relocate to nations in their region, with the majority going to Kenya, Morocco, and the Ivory Coast.
Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec who had been appointed as the new executive vice president of finance and operations by Dufay and Antoine Maillet-Mezeray, exited the company on November 7.
Dufey, who took over, said the company’s decision was to implement a wider range of cost-cutting initiatives to achieve profitability.
“Since we are an Africa-focused firm, we want our leaders to be located with consumers, vendors, and staff.”
“I’m also attempting to adapt to the younger and more tech-savvy populations of its markets in Africa, since rents in Dubai are growing faster than rents in London and New York.” Dufay said.
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Jumia Prime, a monthly subscription programme the company had been testing that offered free delivery to customers, was the first victim of these cost-cutting measures.
“The results from this experiment, in terms of consumer traction and stickiness, fell short of our targets as the market is probably not yet sufficiently mature, leading us to pause this initiative,” Maillet-Mezera said in a statement to investors.