Massimiliano Spalazzi steps down as Jumia Nigeria CEO after 4 years, to be replaced by Sunil Natraj

Jumia Nigeria CEO, Massimiliano Spalazzi is stepping down from his role. This was revealed by the company in a media parley held in Lagos on Tuesday.

Massimiliano took over as CEO in January 2020 just before the pandemic and was able to guide the company through the torrid times. He took over from Juliet Anammah who went on to become the Chairwoman of Jumia Nigeria and the Chief Sustainability Officer of Jumia Group.

Massimiliano Spalazzi has been with the company for more than 12 years. He will be replaced by Sunil Natraj who until now was the CEO and General Manager of Jumia Ghana. He was appointed to the role 10 months ago. And he told Texhnext that a new CEO will be appointed for Ghana soon.

Jumia Nigeria’s 2024 plans

Jumia Nigeria had endured a rather torrid 2023. Highlighting the effects of the naira rebranding and the attendant cash crunch, the company expressed satisfaction with the way it has been able to navigate the situation and looked for opportunities therein. By doing so, it was able to develop a strategy of expansion beyond the megacities.

Heading into 2024, the company said it would deepen its expansion drive by targeting secondary cities and reaching out to new markets. According to Jumia Group CEO, Francis Dufay Nigeria is not only Jumia’s biggest market but also its biggest growth potential market. As such he is very optimistic about the future of the company’s business in Nigeria despite the biting hardship in the country.

He said the company runs a retail business, dealing directly with consumers. So if consumers have empty pockets business will be difficult. He noted that the company is still relatively small across Africa and in Nigeria and as such has several more millions of consumers to convince that e-commerce is the right way for them to get the right goods at the right price. These consumers, he believes, are in the smaller cities where e-commerce is still a new and mostly untried concept.

“We have a growth plan to expand to more cities across Nigeria in 2024. We are going more and more into secondary cities, even small cities that have 20,000 to 30,000 people. We have really big plans for expansion to reach out to new consumers who have never tried e-commerce. We have seen many other countries where this worked extremely well. In these smaller cities we will try solving problems for them and spread our control there,” he said.

Jumia hits major milestone with recent financial result

The e-commerce giant recently hit a milestone in Q3 2023 with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $15 million, marking a substantial improvement compared to Q3 2022’s loss of $32 million. This drastic 67% year-over-year drop reflects the company’s strategic pivot towards more robust financial fundamentals.

The reduced loss signifies a deliberate move towards increased operational efficiency and profitability.

Jumia’s strategic actions led to a noteworthy decrease in liquidity position, reduced by $19 million in Q3 2023, a 71% year-over-year decrease compared to the previous year’s $66 million reduction. Moreover, sales and advertising expenses fell by 74% year-over-year, down to $4.3 million in Q3 2023, showcasing the company’s commitment to disciplined marketing investments.

See also: Jumia records EBITDA loss of $15 million in Q3, the lowest since its IPO in 2019

Amidst this financial restructuring, Jumia faced substantial declines in various metrics. There’s an 11% year-over-year drop in revenue, a decline in quarterly active customers by 24.3%, and a decrease in orders by 23%. These figures mirror deliberate actions by Jumia to recalibrate its product portfolio, including suspending certain services in markets deemed economically challenging.

Macro factors such as high inflation and import restrictions across its footprint contribute significantly to the company’s declining performance. Moreover, seasonal impacts, especially during Q3, have led to decreased usage and order volumes compared to the previous quarter.

Going into 2024, Jumia Nigeria says it is looking forward to a blossoming economy that would loosen the current financial situation and put cash back into people’s pockets. While noting that it would continue to splurge on heavy marketing, it would, however, focus on better outreach as it continues to gun for sustainability.