- JumiaPay, the fintech business of eCommerce company Jumia, has appointed former Palmpay’s Anthony Mbagwu as its Managing Director in Nigeria. Mbagwu will report directly to Sunil Natraj, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria.
- Anthony Mbagwu has over 15 years of experience in the financial services sector. He was previously the head of business support at Unified Payments, Nigeria's premier payments and fintech company, and head of service operations at the multinational commercial, Access Bank.
- This appointment is seen as a strategic move to revitalise JumiaPay, which has been struggling with significant operational losses in recent years.
In 2023, JumiaPay saw transactions fall 38% year-over-year to 2 million, while the number of orders completed using the JumiaPay app also dropped from 34% to 29% year-over-year.
Its transactions reached 2 million, an increase of 52% year-over-year. Besides, streamlining the user experience and the introduction of the Pay on delivery service, the fintech company has increased cashless orders, boosting its records in the eCommerce market.
However, the appointment of the managing director from fintech company PalmPay comes amid the eCommerce’s recent $48.9 million revenue increase and a gross profit of $31.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.
Since its launch in 2017, Jumia executives have consistently highlighted the potential of JumiaPay. In 2019, former CEO Sacha Poignonnec revealed that the company aimed to boost its adoption through its eCommerce platform. Established as a third-party payment solution to provide a secure and rapid payment system for merchants and service providers, the fintech offers a standalone app that facilitates bank transfers, bill payments, loans, and merchant transactions.
This development follows reports of PalmPay being included in the 2024 edition of CNBC and Statista’s prestigious list of the “Top 250 Fintech Companies in the World.”.
What's more, PalmPay has grown to become one of the go-to fintechs in Nigeria, thanks to its user-friendly interface and focus on driving market share through fee-free transfers and promotions. PalmPay processes 15 million transactions on its consumer app daily and maintains a 99.5% transaction success rate.
