The supervisory board of the e-commerce company, Jumia, has appointed Francis Dufay as the company’s CEO.
The information was disclosed in an official statement released by Jumia.
Francis Dufay was named CEO of Jumia following the departure of Co-CEOs Jeremy Hodara and Sacha Poginonnec. Both CEOs stepped down after a decade in which Jumia was pressed to become profitable but was unable to do so. In the statement announcing their removal last year, Jumia’s board alluded to running the company from the continent.
In the statement confirming his appointment, Jumia said, “The executive search that was being conducted has now been concluded. “The appointment reflects the strong confidence of the board in the leadership of Francis and his ability to successfully scale the business to profitability.”
Francis Dufay joined Jumia Côte d’Ivoire in 2014 and was appointed as a vice president of the business in 2022. His tenure at Jumia is off to a good start on the strength of the company’s recently released report for Q4 2022 and for the full year 2022. While the company is still way off from profitability, it continues to show that it may get there.
In January, Dufay was quoted by the Financial Times as saying, “Our growth has correlated with increased spending on marketing and the deterioration of economics. “We want to improve our fundamentals to grow the business and, at the same time, significantly improve our economics and reduce our EBITDA losses.”
Jumia expects to lose around $100 million to $120 million in 2023, a sharp reduction from its losses of $207 million in the full-year 2022, as it implements a strategy to accelerate its path to profitability and improve its economics. Despite being off profitability, Jumia is confident about the growth opportunity across its markets and is making fundamental improvements to its consumer value proposition.
