JumiaPay Hires Ex-PalmPay Exec as New MD to Fix Issues

JumiaPay Appoints New MD: Jumia has announced the appointment of Anthony Mbagwu as its new Managing Director for JumiaPay in Nigeria.

Bringing with him over 15 years of experience in Nigeria’s financial services sector, Mbagwu is a seasoned professional and has now returned to JumiaPay at rival fintech PalmPay from where he served as Senior Business Development & Partnership Manager for ten months.

Competitive Landscape

Mbagwu would be taking up his role at a time when JumiaPay is looking to have an improved performance and better position itself, in the face of evolving competition in fintech.

Jumia’s 2023 filings show that PalmPay is a key competitor to JumiaPay, and as such the company requires strong leadership with strategic vision.

JumiaPay Hires Ex-PalmPay Exec as New MD to Fix Issues

Leadership and Experience

Mbagwu will report to Jumia Nigeria CEO Sunil Natraj and be tasked with growing opportunities for the company’s payment platform, JumaiPay.

This background in the financial services sector, running businesses for some of Nigeria’s largest banks (Access Bank, United Capital), sets him up well to deal with both problems as they come and opportunities on a platter in the fintech space.

Performance Metrics

JumiaPay, which is integrated as a payment method at the checkout of online platforms like Jumia, processed about 39.5% of Jumia orders in 2023.

However, the company’s performance pales in comparison to the $5 billion monthly transactions reported by PalmPay in 2023.

The two sides expect to announce a new billing plan next month, but that will be $5 billion less than the monthly transactions PalmPay reported in 2023.

Mbagwu appointment is likely to strengthen JumiaPay operations and impact on general performance.

Profitability Focus on Strategy

Mbagwu will now spearhead Jumia’s attempts to generate more revenue from its burgeoning fintech operations as part of wider efforts at the company towards becoming profitable.

The firm has been slashing costs and raising cash recently, laying off staff while shutting down its food delivery business.

This is a sentiment that has generated excitement among its investors given the fact that Jumia’s stock price, which stands at $12.16 by writing and was issued for an IPO on April 11th of this year, making it almost four times what they were worth on January 1st when trading started.

Future Outlook

As JumiaPay appoints new MD, it will help with the future of digital banking and fintech in Nigeria. There are clearly a number of challenges that must be surmounted in order to increase its market share, become more efficient operationally in delivering better products and network services as this segment continues to evolve rapidly.

With the expertise of Mbagwu and support from Jumia’s leadership team, JumiaPay is well-placed to navigate this space through headwinds becoming a stronger player in fintech.

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