African marketplace firm Jumia laid off 20% of its staff

New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS) African marketplace company Jumia has laid off 20 per cent of its staff — about 900 workers as part of its cost-cutting efforts, according to Jumia’s FY2022 financials.

“In the fourth quarter of 2022, we undertook significant headcount reductions, resulting in over 900 position terminations, corresponding to a 20 per cent headcount reduction,” said the company.

Moreover, the company mentioned that “as part of our streamlining efforts, we have significantly reduced our presence in Dubai where certain management functions were located, reducing headcount by over 60 per cent.

With these headcount reductions, the company expects to save over 30 per cent in monthly staff costs starting from March 2023, as compared to the October 2022 staff cost baseline.

“The implementation of these organisational changes resulted in $3.7 million in one-off restructuring costs booked in the fourth quarter of 2022,” Jumia said.

Further, in its fourth quarter results, the company also announced to cease some of its running operations.

The marketplace firm discontinued Jumia Prime, which had an immaterial contribution to GMV and Revenue, suspended their logistics-as-a-service offering in a number of geographies, scaled back on first-party grocery in Algeria, Ghana, Senegal and Tunisia, and discontinued their food delivery operations in Egypt, Ghana and Senega.

–IANS

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