The co-founders of Jumia, Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poignonnec, have stepped down as co-CEOs of the African eCommerce giant
This is as the company announced several management changes, including the establishment of a new management board, according to TechCabal.
While the search for a permanent CEO is ongoing, Francis Dufay has been named by the supervisory board as acting CEO.
Dufay, a Jumia employee since 2014, has held a number of senior leadership positions, most recently serving as executive vice president and CEO of Jumia Ivory Coast.
The supervisory board has named Francis Dufay as interim CEO while the search for a new CEO is ongoing.
Dufay, who has been with Jumia since 2014, has held a number of top leadership positions, most recently serving as executive vice president of Africa and managing the company’s e-commerce operations in Africa. Dufay, like Hodara and Poignonnec, worked at the international consulting company Mckinsey before joining Jumia in 2014.
Antoine Maillet-Mezeray, who was formerly the group CFO of Jumia, has also been elevated by the supervisory board to executive vice president of finance and operations. The corporation will be making numerous other senior management changes over the next few months, of which these two are only the first. The business will share more details on this.
Dufay and Mailet-Mezeray are tasked with: “reducing operating losses and setting the business on a clear path to profitability, through stronger cost discipline, targeted monetization initiatives, and a more simplified and efficient organization,” according to the statement.
Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Jonathan Klein, said in the statement: As we look ahead to the next chapter of Jumia’s journey, we want to bring more focus to the core e-commerce business as part of a more simplified and efficient organization with stronger fundamentals and a clearer path to profitability.”
Although the corporation has always expressed a desire to turn a profit, it is unclear when that will happen even if losses are constantly reduced.
“There is not a silver bullet that will suddenly make it profitable,” Poignonnec stated in an interview following its Q2 results reporting.
