An "African company" does not necessarily mean a company registered in Africa or owned by Africans.<p>When us Africans refer to something as African, it can mean several things. Allow me to call it a FUBU approach. That means "For Us, By Us". It can also mean "For Us or By Us"<p>This means the entity does not necessarily have to be of African origin, it can just be a result of its focus on Africa. Jumia operates exclusively in Africa, and by virtue of that and our Ubuntu mentality, it is for all intents and purposes, one of us. Though not officially.<p>When Africans supported the French soccer team last year at the World Cup as "our African team", do you really think Africans are not aware that France is not in Africa and was not representing Africa either. It's just a social construct that gives us something to cheer about, historically we haven't had much.<p>The same FUBU mentality is also why a lot of Africans considered non-Africans "African heroes". Where I come from, Fidel Castro is an African hero for educating our doctors for free and sending doctors of their own. It's not because he is African. It is simply because of FUBU and Ubuntu.
"Let’s also be honest here. Jumia didn’t succeed because it was “African”. Jumia owes part of its success to a marketplace that doesn’t believe in domestic brands. It’s heavy lifting to build a successful local brand, because you’re viewed suspiciously."<p>I live in Ghana, and I don't shop on Jumia[1] because i don't believe in domestic brands. It's a ridiculous claim. This[2] is a local brand that has made 10,000+ successful sales via Jumia. The major challenge of doing E-commerce in Africa is that excluding some affluent parts, many towns and cities don't have functioning address grids. It's a complete mess and one requires the use of landmarks and long descriptions to locate places.<p>Jumia representatives always call to ask for directions to your location. If they get lost, you could have them give the phone to anyone nearby who is familiar with the neighborhood. You can then have the stranger direct them(Jumia delivery reps) to your location. It may be unconventional, but works.<p>I and millions of people who shop on Jumia do so cause it's convenient and provides a needed service. Until a few days ago, I had no idea it's a German company and its founders are french. Calling it an African company when it's not may be deceptive, but please don't say it's successful because Africans don't love local brands.<p>[1] - <a href="https://www.jumia.com.gh/" rel="nofollow">https://www.jumia.com.gh/</a>
[2] - <a href="https://www.jumia.com.gh/white-label-woven-kente-fabric-6-yards-multicolour-67916.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.jumia.com.gh/white-label-woven-kente-fabric-6-ya...</a>
The title says 'a digital colonization thread' - so foreign ownership or control of companies is colonization? Does that apply to, for example, US-owned companies in Europe? Or Chinese-owned companies in the US?
It seems "Africa’s largest e-commerce company" is not African at all. It always pains me to see this when I visit small countries. Jobs are one thing, but if small countries find that massive resources are leaving the country in the name of those jobs then what's the point - it can be considered some form of trade at best and in the worst case colonization.
Jumia was set up by Rocket Internet.<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rocket-internet-jumia-ipo-idUSKCN1M01PG" rel="nofollow">https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rocket-internet-jumia-ipo...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocket_Internet</a>
Actually Jumia was founded by 2 West Africans but it seems it’s history is being rewritten [0][1]. Unless there are two Jumias.<p>This article [2] in particular, written in 2013, is no longer available and doesn't appear to be available in the wayback machine.<p>edit:<p>Seems there's a more in depth article from 2014 [3]<p><pre><code> [0] https://vc4a.com/blog/2013/09/03/online-retail-becomes-a-reality-in-africas-biggest-market-behind-the-scenes-with-nigerian-internet-startup-jumia/
[1] https://techcabal.com/2014/01/30/jumia-confirms-exit-tunde-kehinde-raphael-afaedor-announces-new-ceos/
[2] https://vc4a.com/blog/2013/08/09/jumia-nigeria-how-a-local-e-commerce-startup-became-a-multimillion-dollar-company-in-less-than-a-year/
[3] https://ynaija.com/how-tunde-and-raphael-got-here-a-profile-of-jumias-million-dollar-ex-ceos/</code></pre>
> They each hold just over 2% of the company’s shares.<p>Wow, 4% foreign ownership of stock by founders who operate a business entirely in Africa /s. Is this really the substance of this expose?<p>Especially considering founder stock isn't how the vast majority of how value is returned to society in day-to-day business operations. But rather through the value delivery of the businesses to consumers and paying peoples employees.<p>Even the founders living and operating in Africa would mean a massive chunk of their dividends/salary would be going back into the African economy.<p>There are a million ways companies can generate value to a region/continent. The idea that a company is entirely extracting capital/value from other countries, because the (4% minority ownership) founders are foreign-born and the corporation was registered in Europe is not how that works.<p>Just like how saying a couple guys from Boston, with a company registered in Delware, but their entire operations and business-model is based in California ...is not primarily generating value for California but Boston/Delware.<p>At most this could only potentially reduce the narrative about individual success potential of African business owners. But that doesn't make it any less an African business and a model that businesses <i>can</i> work locally. Which is all investors care about. Even in SV 90% of investors won't look at you until you've somewhat proven your business-model OR you have had past success + network. Rarely do they invest blind unless it's a trendy highly-well timed startup they are looking to gamble on in a first-to-market type investment... but even that is rare.<p>The authors claim this is merely dismissible by the founders 'melanin' levels doesn't really hold up to scrutiny. <a href="https://twitter.com/tmsruge/status/1117106622357299200" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/tmsruge/status/1117106622357299200</a>
All companies are entirely their shareholder's so unless a national government has a controlling stake in a company no company is any country's company much less a continent's one.
You might say Jumia is an African brand, brands are fictions created by companies specifically for the purpose of being associated with something potentially valued by consumers in a given market.
Interesting read. I’ve never heard of Jumia before today. The wiki page says their headquarters is in Lagos, but I didn’t see that mentioned here. Does all that mean they have an office/headquarters in Lagos but everything else is outside of Africa?
> Let’s also be honest here. Jumia didn’t succeed because it was “African”. Jumia owes part of its success to a marketplace that doesn’t believe in domestic brands. It’s heavy lifting to build a successful local brand, because you’re viewed suspiciously.<p>In Tunisia, the Jumia brand is synonymous with shittiness. I used them for food delivery a few times. It was bad. Then one time, they didn't deliver. I called the customer service and after giving her my order number, she just hang up.<p>They "succeeded" here because they are the first to "invest" and already have a platform for e-commerce. I don't think they'll be around much longer.
This article seems to be pretty racist to me. I’m white and live in Africa and am a citizen of Tanzania. But by his standards I guess I’m not African and never will be? Sounds like a double standard.
Jumia operates exclusively (or close to) in Africa. It draws investments to Africa, it puts Africa on the tech map, and it helps its African customers.<p>That's seems very positive for Africa.
> when a European company casually runs roughshod over that identity [of being an African company] and trades in it, it’s a slap in the face. It effectively lays a beachhead for digital colonizers in the space. “With enough millions you too can claim to be an emerging “African” growth co<p>I applaud the directness of this article. It's an important issue, there are big market opportunities in Africa and entrepreneurs who are African nationals deserve better access to them.<p>However, it's important to note there are very successful 'tech' companies part owned by African nationals and incorporated in Africa (as far as I can make out). E.g. SportsPesa [0] which has a mix of Kenyan/European/US founders [1] and looks like one of the most profitable East African companies right now [2] (it blows Jumia out of the water). It's a company doing well enough to sponsor a premier League football club shirt.<p>I wonder whether the more serious barriers to young African entrepreneurs are their governments & regulatory environments. Incorporating a company, setting up bank accounts and so on in many African countries feels like a challenge in itself. And many African founders may look for US/European founders simply to incorporate entities elsewhere which will likely increase their chances of investment and security. This is where the "beachhead for digital colonizers" metaphor becomes multifaceted. I think the beachhead goes both ways, because there is value to an African national registering an entity, e.g in the UK [3]. This isn't really to do with identity, it's to do with practicality and trust. It's hard to trust institutions in a lot of African countries, and that's a disservice to the people and young entrepreneurs that live there. The smart ones probably won't wait around, they'll figure out the safest foundation for delivering tech products and services to people in Africa.<p>I'd be interested to hear from any African entrepreneurs working in Africa here on what the practical barriers/solutions have been to setting up companies and getting them working.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=531230464" rel="nofollow">https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.a...</a>
[1] <a href="https://samrack.com/who-owns-sportpesa-here-is-a-list-of-the-owners-photos/" rel="nofollow">https://samrack.com/who-owns-sportpesa-here-is-a-list-of-the...</a>
[2] <a href="https://businesstoday.co.ke/sportpesa-float-ipo-nse-next-year/" rel="nofollow">https://businesstoday.co.ke/sportpesa-float-ipo-nse-next-yea...</a>
[3] <a href="https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10682750/officers" rel="nofollow">https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10682750/officers</a>
What's bad about it? This is one big field startups have to disrupt yet: colonization. Africa probably can't work on its own, we just have to really figure out colonization. Yes people largely gave up on it in 1960s because it didn't make money, but they just didn't have that Google moment there, web search also didn't make money in 1990s. Many places in the world would benefit from proper adult oversight.<p>Politicians can't say it because they need votes. But why businessmen should lie to themselves?