E-commerce platform Jumia Kenya appoints Charles Ballard to replace Juan Seco as new CEO

KENYA – Africa’s leading eCommerce and logistics company, Jumia, has appointed Charles Ballard as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Jumia Kenya, effective 1st March, succeeding Juan Seco, who left the company after eight years to join a pan-African player in the FinTech space.

Ballard has been with Jumia Kenya since 2019 when he joined as Head of Performance and Planning. In 2021, he became the Chief Operating Officer overseeing the expansion and deployment of Jumia activities in Kenya, and a year later; he was named Senior Vice President—Commercials.

Before joining Jumia, Charles worked as a Retail consultant at Sagaci Research in Kenya from 2015 to 2019, and before as Deputy CFO at ACTED (international humanitarian NGO) from 2012 to 2015.

“I am excited to continue driving the e-commerce narrative in rural Kenya, where more than 70 percent of the population lives,” Ballard said.

Access to Modern Retail is a challenge in these areas, which is a great opportunity to grow our online marketplace. E-commerce can bring better prices, more choices, and convenience to the rural Kenyans.”

The e-commerce firm said Ballard will continue to be intensely involved with Customer Experience initiatives at the core of our business.

Jumia praised him as a perfect example of the breadth and depth of the career paths that Jumia has to offer and plans to grow an even stronger team to pursue the work it has started.

Jumia Kenya, which bets on future growth to break even, plans to use the accumulated losses to offset future tax obligations once it leaps into profitability.

The e-commerce platform made a cumulative loss of US$87.8 million (Sh11.8 billion) by the close of 2021 in the Kenyan business, nearly nine years of its operations in the country.

Jumia Kenya has had a US$9 million (Sh1.2 billion) loss increment from the US$78.8 million (Sh10.6 billion) booked in 2020, which in turn was a rise from US$72.7 million (Sh9.7 billion) recorded in 2019.

Regulatory filings show that the online marketplace had accumulated a total of US$738.9 million (Sh99 billion) in gross losses as of the close of 2021 from all the over 10 markets that it operates in worldwide.

Jumia is banking on the increasing adoption of online shopping, tied to the growth of the digital economy and the number of people using the internet, to expand its footprint and get to profitability.

According to ecommerceDB, a partner of market research firm Statista, Kenya is the 56th largest market for eCommerce, with a projected revenue of US$3,237.6 million by 2023, placing it ahead of Jordan.

Revenue is expected to show a compound annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 6.7%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$4,198.5 million by 2027.

In the ranking of the e-commerce market in Kenya, ecommerceDB indicates that Food & Personal Care takes up 4.4% of the orders, while Electronics & Media take up the lion’s share of 39.3%.

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