Jumia Fires Nigerian Employees Involved In Ksh7.6 Bn Sales Fraud

The Loss-making Berlin-based company Jumia, has fired some of its employees in Nigeria and suspended a number from other African countries in a move to curb improper sales practices on the online marketing platform.

Speaking to media, Jumia’s Technologies AG  stated that they had identified dubious transactions that accounted for approximately 4 percent loss of Jumia’s sales in the first quarter of 2019.

According to the online company, independent sales agents under its “J-Force” sales platform in Africa worked with employees and sellers to make undeserved gains from commissions and seller fees.

This is coming at a time that Africa’s biggest e-commerce business company had announced KSh7.6 billion loss in the second quarter of 2019. Jumia revealed that improper orders which were placed and subsequently canceled inflated its order volume.

Jumia reports that it has adjusted its Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) to account for the fraudulent transactions as well as suspended employees involved pending investigations. The improper orders inflated the retailer’s GMV by around Ksh1.82 billion between the last quarter of 2018 and the first two quarters of 2019.

Jumia has been hit by a massive fall in its stock price due to the increased fraudulent activities being masterminded by and ministered by Jumia insiders all over Africa. Jumia’s losses increased by 60% from KSh4.8 billion in the first half of 2018 to KSh7.6 billion in the first half of this year.