E-commerce big Jumia appointed Anthony Mbagwu because the managing director of its Nigerian fintech arm, JumiaPay. Mbagwu joins JumiaPay from rival fintech PalmPay the place he was a senior enterprise growth and partnership supervisor for ten months.

Mbagwu has over 15 years of expertise within the monetary providers sector. He was beforehand head of enterprise assist at Unified Funds, a distinguished cost infrastructure supplier, and head of service operations at Entry Financial institution.

In keeping with Jumia’s 2023 submitting, PalmPay is certainly one of JumiaPay’s largest opponents. 

Jumia didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback

JumiaPay is built-in as a cost technique on the checkout of on-line platforms like Jumia—it processed about 39.5% of Jumia orders in 2023. It additionally has a standalone app that lets customers make financial institution transfers, invoice funds, loans, and service provider funds. One particular person acquainted with the corporate mentioned JumiaPay’s largest buyer is its father or mother firm. 

JumiaPay processed $192 million in funds for 8.4 million orders in 2023, a determine that pales in comparison with the $5 billion month-to-month transactions that Palmpay reported in 2023.

Mbagwu will report back to Sunil Natraj,  the CEO of Jumia Nigeria.

Mbagwu’s appointment comes as Jumia intensifies its concentrate on profitability. The corporate has laid off employees and shut down its meals supply arm to avoid wasting prices and improve income which stood at $186.4 million on the finish of 2023, per its SEC filings. A few of these strikes have resonated with traders with its share value rallying to $12.16 on the time of writing this text, practically 4 occasions what it started the yr.