Omolara Adagunodo, the former Managing Director of Jumia Travel has been appointed the interim MD of Jumia Food Nigeria replacing Guy Futi.
The appointment of Omolara Adagunodo comes weeks after Jumia shut down its travel marketplace-Jumia Travel and offloaded its travel business across Africa to Travelstart.
Omolara Adagunodo has been with Jumia for close to 6 years and comes with years of management experience which she will definitely bring to bear in her new position as interim MD, Jumia Food.
Although her appointment is still provisional, Omolara Adagunodo being in the driving seat of Jumia Food shows that the Jumia hierarchy still has confidence in her management skills.
As for Guy Futi, he may no longer have a role in Jumia anymore as he has proceeded on leave and may not return to the ecommerce startup.
Interestingly, no particular reason was given for replacing him with Omolara Adagunodo.
However, an organisation named AFSIC which is organising an African Investment Forum in London in May list Guy Futi’s designation as Managing Director Nigeria – On-Demand Services Jumia Group which is a signal that Jumia has been merged into one company.
To clear these speculations, Techawk reached out to the Head of Public Relations for Jumia Nigeria, Olukayode Kolawole for comments on this new appointment and the role of Guy Futi, we are yet to get any reply from him.
Jumia appears to be an aggressive drive to break even and eventually become profitable.
It shut down its offices in Cameroon and Tanzania and laid off staff in Kenya in a bid to cut cost.
It has appointed new CEOs for Jumia Ghana and Jumia Nigeria and at a recent press conference in Lagos to share the ecommerce startup’s vision for 2020, Jumia announced that it will leverage JumiaPay, its payment gateway, to boost its revenue and to this end, it has intensified efforts to make JumiaPay a stand-alone fintech company.
