Jumia is planning to activate new city routes in Nigeria as it aims to expand its presence across the country in 2024. The expansion plan is one of the first tasks of the e-commerce platform’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian unit, Sunil Natraj, whose appointment was announced on Tuesday.
Natraj will replace Massimiliano Spalazzi who will be leaving the position on 31 December 2023. Spalazzi has been at Jumia Nigeria from the beginning spending 11 years. He was CEO for 3 years During his tenure, the company’s operations in Nigeria grew to become the largest market for Jumia Group. Jumia Group is present in 11 markets in Africa and the company said there are no plans at the moment to add new countries. The focus would be in strengthening the existing 11 markets and ensuring they grow.
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Sunil came to Jumia in 2022 with extensive experience in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Jumia, he handled the Jumia Express logistics business as VP of Sales and Marketing based in Lagos, Nigeria before becoming the CEO of Jumia Ghana.
Before Jumia, he managed and built brands in the region and handled large businesses in the FMCG sector. He has been based in Africa for over 11 years, where he worked for large multinationals such as GBFoods. Sunil holds a B.S in Engineering and an MBA from The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta.
At Jumia, he worked towards cost definitions and reduction, price definition and standardization, and business development and growth. He is expected to replicate some of his achievements in Nigeria.
“It’s an honour to contribute to Jumia’s success in the country, prioritising customer satisfaction, secure payments, and strong partnerships,” Natraj said. “Our dedicated team is key to our future success, and I am confident we will achieve even greater milestones, always earning our customers’ trust.”
According to the company, the goal of the cities’ activation is to expand the brand beyond Lagos and ensure it is perceived as a true Nigerian company. Ibadan and Akure routes are likely the first to receive priority, as plans increase for further cities activation. The cities the company is targeting are those with at least 20,000 people. The company is also planning to deploy sales teams to educate people in communities where the brand or e-commerce is not popular or has no presence.
Francis Dufay, CEO of Jumia Group acknowledged the challenges the company has faced in the e-commerce market recently which affected its performance as a listed entity on the New Times Stock Exchange (NYSE). However, he said the company is more bullish about the future of ecommerce in not only Nigeria but also on the African continent. He also noted that although the market on the continent is still small, the goal for Jumia is not about controlling market share but in expanding the market to attract more investors and innovation.
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“We are looking at the size of the market – not the market share. The market is still relatively small and we believe it is our responsibility to make it bigger than it is,” Dufay said.
