E-Business
Jumia Lays off 20% Staff as Part of Plans to Reduce Losses

Jumia, Africa’s leading e-tailer, has taken major steps to reduce losses and accelerating progress towards profitability, even if it means selling to fewer customers.

Francis Dufay
Jumia, which emphasises that cost reduction is a key priority of its strategy, undertook significant headcount reductions in the fourth quarter of 2022. This resulted in over 900 position terminations, the company says, corresponding to a 20 percent headcount reduction.
“We have streamlined our organizational structure, creating leaner, more effective teams, fully committed to the execution of our strategy,” Jumia explained in its latest results publication.
As part of the streamlining efforts, Jumia says it has also significantly reduced its presence in Dubai where certain management functions were located, reducing headcount by over 60 percent. It is understood that most of the remaining staff are being relocated to African offices, closer to consumers, sellers and operations.
“We expect these headcount reductions to allow us to save over 30 percent in monthly staff costs starting from March 2023, as compared to the October 2022 staff cost baseline,” the company estimates while also noting that an expense of USD 3.7 M was incurred in the restructuring process. Notwithstanding, Jumia insists it is working across the full cost structure to drive efficiencies.
These changes, coupled with efforts at prioritising fundamentals-led growth and gutting underperforming business units amongst other factors, did affect Jumia’s sales.
In the just-released fourth quarter and Full Year 2022 results, active customers amounted to 3.2 million for the three months ended December 31, down 15 percent year-over-year. The company says this was partly a reflection of a challenging macro environment across countries that is putting pressure on consumer spend while affecting sellers’ ability to secure supply.
Another factor cited as being responsible for the subdued showing is the deliberate action on Jumia’s side to reduce promotional/marketing intensity behind categories with more challenging unit economics, including a number of digital services on the JumiaPay app. “We remain disciplined around customer acquisition with a focus on profitability,” the e-tailer emphasised.
The combination of the above factors, macro environment and deliberate category rationalisation, also drove a decline in orders by 12 percent year-over-year, to 9.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company notes. Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) also slowed to USD 283.1 M, down 14 percent year-over-year and flat on a constant currency basis.
However, Francis Dufay (previously appointed Acting CEO and now appointed CEO of Jumia by the Supervisory Board) maintains it’s no cause for panic as one of Jumia’s immediate priorities is to significantly improve resource allocation, focusing on core areas with attractive returns on investments and clear ecosystem benefits.
“In the fourth quarter of 2022, we started implementing our strategy to accelerate our path to profitability and further strengthen our fundamentals. While the fourth quarter results only reflect a fraction of the actions we are taking, we are seeing early signs of success and remain focused on execution,” Dufay commented.
In its earlier Q3 2022 results released in the middle of November last year shortly after the exit of long-standing co-CEOs Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, Jumia announced its intention to cease a number of activities that do not yield attractive returns.
These business exits, the company now says, have largely been completed: Jumia Prime has been discontinued; the logistics-as-a-service offering is off in all but three countries; first-party grocery has been scaled back in four markets; food delivery discontinued in Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, and Tunisia.
Some of these changes appear to already be yielding fruit in some ways as operating loss in Q4 2022 was USD 49.8 M, down 41 percent year-over-year while gross profit accelerated to USD 41 M in the fourth quarter of 2022, up 22 percent year-over-year. Also, with its marketplace revenue hitting a record USD 41.2 M and fulfilment and other expenses continuing to fall, Jumia appears to be taking the slow and steady route; an increased focus on sustainability after years of unbridled growth-chasing spending.
Jumia, which has its African headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria, while serving 11 countries on the continent, has been the dominant e-tailer in these parts for more than a decade but continues to struggle to make the numbers work, failing to turn profitable and accumulating around USD 2 B in losses. Its share price has tumbled nearly 70 percent since its historic 2019 IPO as shareholders and analysts continue to express unease over the viability of its Amazon-style business model in challenging African markets.
The ongoing reset that is apparent at Jumia, thus, seems in order though it remains to be whether it would be enough to turn things around.
E-Business
Galaxy Backbone Celebrates the Federal Government’s Paperless Civil Service Milestone

Galaxy Backbone (GBB) aligns with and celebrates the successful announcement by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation on the achievement of a Paperless Civil Service, a significant milestone in Nigeria’s public sector reform and digital transformation agenda.

The milestone was formally highlighted at a press briefing led by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, who commended Galaxy Backbone for its sustained support and contribution throughout the implementation of the programme.
GBB has played a critical role in enabling this transition by providing secure, scalable, and shared digital infrastructure that supports the digitisation of government processes across Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Through the 1Government Cloud, MDAs have been empowered to migrate from paper-based workflows to digital platforms, improving efficiency, collaboration, data security, and service delivery across the Federal Civil Service.
In addition, GovMail, GBB’s secure government email platform, has strengthened official communication, enhanced records management, and reinforced cybersecurity standards—key pillars in sustaining a paperless operating environment.
Galaxy Backbone acknowledges the collective efforts of the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Permanent Secretaries, Directors of ICT, consultants, partners, and dedicated public servants whose commitment and collaboration ensured the smooth delivery of this initiative.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Galaxy Backbone, Prof. Ibrahim Adeyanju, was represented at the press briefing by Akintayo Bamisaye, Acting Group Head, Research, Digital Innovation and Skills Department (RDIS).
GBB describes the achievement as a strong close to 2025 and reaffirms its commitment to supporting the Federal Government in building a modern, efficient, and digitally enabled public service.
E-Business
Jumia CEO says Black Friday Signals Nigeria’s E-Commerce Maturity

At the close of 2025, Temidayo Ojo, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria, reflected on a year-end shopping season that points to the growing maturity of the country’s e-commerce market. “Black Friday is no longer a single, short-lived spike in activity,” he said.

“It has become a familiar, anticipated moment in the retail calendar, where consumers shop deliberately and with confidence.”
Preliminary KPIs for the two months ended November 30, 2025, show strong year-on-year growth in both orders and Gross Merchandise Value (GMV), with GMV growth outpacing order growth. This indicates that customers are placing fuller, more considered baskets rather than shopping in fragmented transactions. Nigeria ranked among Jumia Group’s better-performing markets, with engagement remaining steady throughout the Black Friday period rather than spiking briefly and tapering off.
A key factor behind this performance is the growing familiarity of consumers with online shopping. Customers are increasingly leveraging platform features such as saved carts, brand stores, and price comparison tools to plan purchases in advance. This trend suggests that digital commerce is becoming embedded in everyday habits rather than being viewed as a one-off event.
Ojo also highlighted the role of Jumia’s JForce network in connecting digital commerce to local communities. “Our agents are critical to ensuring that customers across Nigeria, including secondary cities and smaller communities, have access to variety, consistent pricing, and reliable delivery,” he said. “During peak periods like Black Friday, JForce agents can respond faster, serve more customers efficiently, and build stronger local relationships. This isn’t just a distribution channel—it’s a pathway to sustainable income and inclusion.”
Reflecting on the overall performance, the CEO concluded: “What we’re seeing this year-end is steady engagement across categories, stronger consumer confidence, and partners like our JForce agents benefiting from increased activity.
“It confirms that Nigeria’s e-commerce ecosystem is maturing, growing in a more structured and resilient way. As the December Holiday Sale continues, we expect these patterns of familiarity, trust, and participation to sustain momentum and drive both commerce and community impact across the country.”
E-Business
Galaxy Backbone Tops FG’s Website Performance Ranking

Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) has been ranked first overall in the 2025 Federal Government Website Performance Scorecard.

This is a landmark achievement for Nigeria’s digital economy.
The ranking, conducted by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), is the definitive benchmark for digital excellence and transparency across all Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs).
Professor Ibrahim Adepoju Adeyanju, managing director and CEO of Galaxy Backbone, received the award during a ceremony in Abuja.
He described the feat as a validation of the agency’s“Nigeria First”data sovereignty strategy and its relentless pursuit of service excellence.
This recognition comes as the Federal Government intensifies its push to achieve a fully paperless civil service by December 31, 2025.
GBB has been the primary architect of this transition through its 1Gov Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform, which now hosts the operations of almost all federal MDAs.
The award adds to a growing list of accolades for Galaxy Backbone in 2025, following its recent win of the “International Standard Excellence Award for Best IT Service Provider.”
As the central hub for government shared services, GBB’s performance serves as a blueprint for other agencies currently undergoing digital transformation.
With its expanded fiber-optic backbone now covering over 13 states and its secure cloud solutions, Galaxy Backbone remains the cornerstone of Nigeria’s vision to become a leading digital nation by the end of the decade.
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