JUMIA Nigeria Officially Announces Nicolas Martin and Jérémy Doutté As New Co-CEOs

When Rocket Internet decided to launch an Amazon-styled online retailer in Nigeria, it needed the right management team with the ability to grow a localised version in a highly-competitive, risk-prone and logistically-challenged environment such as Nigeria.

That’s why it hired local entrepreneurs, Raphael Afaedor and Tunde Kehinde, both MBAs from Harvard with experience managing Internet product development and marketing in the online services market.

While the duo were generally considered as the co-founders of the e-commerce company, several other Rocket Internet management staff have touted, in their LinkedIn profiles and elsewhere, that they were co-founders of the German incubator’s Nigeria operations.

But Afaedor and Kehinde were also referred to as co-CEOs of the e-commerce company, a title that they gladly shared over the past 18 months or so. A title that they’re now going to drop soon as the company now has new CEOs – Nicolas Martin and Jérémy Doutté — according to an official statement from the company.

Both CEOs are foreign. Martin, likely from France, is an MBA from INSEAD, France and joined JUMIA from McKinsey & Company where he previously worked as a senior engagement manager.

While Doutté, 30, also likely from France and also an MBA, but from Harvard Business School has always been a Rocket guy, starting way back in May 2011 as an intern for Dafiti in Brazil. After his MBA in June of 2012, he has served as Managing Director for JUMIA operations in Morocco and Egypt. Before then, he worked at as an associate at McKinsey & Company.

As fas as we know, both entrepreneurs have not lived or worked in Nigeria before now and may have little or no knowledge of the Nigerian market, so it is not clear why the company has decided to bring in foreign expertise and talent to run its e-commerce operations in Nigeria.

However, it is possible that both CEOs are merely replacing Afaedor and Kehinde’s place, for the time being, until the company finds people with strong knowledge and experience of the local terrain, especially since major competitor, Konga with strong local knowledge, expertise and execution has posed a serious threat to the company.

Meanwhile, Afaedor and Kehinde have moved on to their own separate ventures, with Afaedor rumoured to be working on a payments start-up, while Kehinde is launching an e-commerce logistics and supply chain company simply called NewCo?, alongside Ercin Eksin, a former Rocket Internet director.