While the workers of Jumia Cameroon are still digesting the news of operations being ‘suspended’ in the country, the biggest eCommerce startup in Africa has closed another of its business in Tanzania.
According to a statement obtained, the ‘Amazon of Africa’ has shut down its operations in Tanzania in order to focus resources on other markets.
The statement reads: “Based on our review of the path to success, we have made a difficult decision to cease our operations in Tanzania as of 27th Nov 2019.
“While Tanzania has strong potential and we’re proud of the growth we’ve collectively seen stemming from Jumia’s adoption, we have to focus our resources on our other markets. This decision isn’t easy but will help put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help Jumia thrive.”
Like in Cameroon, the statement adds that: “Jumia will continue to support buyers and vendors through our classifieds portal, previously called Jumia Deals, which will now be the main portal jumia.tz. Thousands of buyers and vendors transact through this portal and we believe it will continue to become increasingly relevant in the future.”
The Alibaba of Africa appears to be desperately looking for ways to cut its losses and become profitable. One of the ways it thinks it can achieve this is to close down businesses that strategic to these objectives.
Jumia’s 3rd quarter report shows that it is nowhere near profitability despite making a revenue of $44.2 million. Regardless, the losses keep rising. For the Q3, the loss stood at $55 million, which is higher than the $45 million it recorded in the same quarter in 2018.
The million-dollar question on the minds of the thousands of Jumia employees is which country is next? It is still present in Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda and Rwanda.
Olalekan Ajimoti – Blogger, Content Writer, and Digital Marketer helping brands and retailers build 8-figure e-commerce since 2016.
As a corporate trainer, brand communications expert, and brand consultant, I help people start, stay and grow in business leveraging digital skills and traditional expertise.
