African e-commerce company Jumia has exited Tanzania a mere 10 days after leaving Cameroon.
A statement released by Jumia said it has made the move in order to focus on its operations in other countries.
Tanzania is one less African country Jumia has been serving, with 12 other countries left. These are: Kenya, Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, and Algeria.
The statement to Techawk read, “Based on our review of the path to success, we have made a difficult decision to cease operations in Tanzania as of 27th November. While Tanzania has strong potential, we have to focus our resources on our other markets. This decision will help put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help Jumia thrive.”
Jumia will however continue running its classified services in Tanzania (as it has done with Cameroon post-exit), via Jumia Deals.
“Jumia will continue to support buyers and vendors through our classifieds portal, previously called Jumia Deals, which will now be the main portal. We believe it will continue to become increasingly relevant in the future for buyers and vendors.”
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Jumia has been on a rough rollercoaster ride since it enlisted on the NEW York Stock Exchange earlier this year.
Closing operations in whichever number of countries is certainly no way to maintain investor confidence in light of significant losses reported by Jumia.
Jumia’s stock price has plunged after reporting a US$ 55m loss in Q3 2019; this is a larger loss by $10m compared to the US$ 45m incurred by Jumia in Q3 2018.
Jumia had hinted at potentially exiting the Congo and Gabon markets.
Jumia stated that it is restructuring operations from e-commerce to focus more on its payment platform, JumiaPay.
