E-commerce player Jumia appoints a new CEO for Kenyan operation

“I am excited to continue driving the e-commerce narrative in rural Kenya, where more than 70% 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.”

Before joining Jumia, he was a retail consultant at Sagaci Research in Kenya from 2015 to 2019, working on retail and e-commerce projects across more than 15 African countries.

Kenyan-based executive with an NGO

He has also been a Kenyan-based executive with the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (commonly known as ACTED), a French humanitarian non-governmental organisation.

Ballard holds a master’s degree from the ESSEC Business School (France) and a BSc in International Development from the London School of Economics.

Jumia is a key player in the continent’s e-commerce space and is sometimes known as the ‘Amazon of Africa’ due to its involvement in more than a dozen countries.

But the going has not been easy and its once-aggressive expansion strategy has been pared back as it continues to make losses and the share price struggles after coming off a high in early 2021.

There has been a management shakeup and a cost-cutting drive which has included retrenchments and exiting unprofitable segments like logistics-as-a-service and grocery delivery. It has also struggled with supply chain problems and foreign currency fluctuations.