Jumia to close Dubai office, send staff to Africa

Jumia, an e-commerce company, is closing its Dubai branch to reduce expenses and concentrate on Africa.

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. The 60-person Dubai office will also be disbanded.

The decision is being made as the company implements a wider range of cost-cutting initiatives in an effort to achieve profitability. It comes a little less than a month after the departure of founders Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec.

Dufay, who took charge when the founders stepped down, stated, “Since we are an Africa-focused firm, we want our leaders to be located with consumers, vendors, and staff.” He continued: “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.”

Revenue streams

November 7 saw the resignation of Hodara and Poignonnec, who had been appointed as the new executive vice president of finance and operations by Dufay and Antoine Maillet-Mezeray.

A little over a week later, the business declared it was drastically cutting back on projects that hadn’t demonstrated their viability in favour of concentrating on established revenue streams.

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.