In a move to bolster its fintech operations, e-commerce giant Jumia has appointed Anthony Mbagwu as the managing director of its Nigerian fintech arm, JumiaPay. Mbagwu joins JumiaPay from rival fintech company PalmPay, where he served as a senior business development and partnership manager for ten months.
With over 15 years of experience in the financial services sector, Mbagwu’s credentials are impressive. He previously held positions as the head of business support at Unified Payments, a prominent payment infrastructure provider, and head of service operations at Access Bank.
According to Jumia’s 2023 filings, PalmPay is one of JumiaPay’s biggest competitors. Despite attempts to reach them, Jumia did not immediately respond to requests for comments on the new appointment.
JumiaPay is an integral part of Jumia’s ecosystem, processing about 39.5% of orders on the Jumia platform in 2023. In addition to being a checkout option on Jumia, it offers a standalone app that enables users to make bank transfers, bill payments, loans, and merchant payments. Sources within the company suggest that JumiaPay’s biggest customer is its parent company, Jumia.
In 2023, JumiaPay processed $192 million in payments for 8.4 million orders, a figure that stands in stark contrast to the $5 billion in monthly transactions reported by PalmPay in the same year.
Anthony Mbagwu will report directly to Sunil Natraj, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria. His appointment comes at a critical time as Jumia intensifies its focus on profitability. The company has undertaken several cost-saving measures, including staff layoffs and shutting down its food delivery arm, to boost its revenue, which stood at $186.4 million by the end of 2023, according to its SEC filings. These moves have positively impacted investor confidence, with Jumia’s share price rallying to $12.16 at the time of writing, nearly four times its value at the beginning of the year.
Mbagwu’s extensive experience and strategic vision are expected to drive JumiaPay towards greater efficiency and market penetration, positioning Jumia as a stronger player in the competitive fintech industry