The Jumia IPO was really good, not just for Jumia, but for many others. I spoke with many media organizations, and added some clients in the process. A radio station invited me to Philadelphia but I had to decline because of scheduling conflicts. It turns out that my 30 million addressable market size is it. A VC fund asked us to rework numbers from its African portfolios Can we have more IPOs?
Here is an excerpt from one of my interviews to a U.S. publisher.
“You can’t scale as quickly as Alibaba did in China or Amazon did in the States,” said Ndubuisi Ekekwe, founder and chairman of Fasmicro,. ..
“In Nigeria, companies like Jumia only have about 30 million potential customers, we estimate, with the necessary disposable incomes for travel, out of about 190 million residents,” said Ekekwe. “Social mobility is too static. Africa’s strongest economies typically don’t have the broad and growing middle classes you need to repeat the success of a Ctrip.”
Jumia has a date with destiny as it works for its first quarterly for the NYSE. If it shows growth, Jumia can hit north of $4 billion but if it misses key indicators like revenue and active users, Jumia will be under severe stress. It has already given up more than $1.2 billion from its top numbers (now worth $2.7 billion from $3.9 billion). It has to make sure that stops, as American investors are panic-prone when it comes to foreign companies.
Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and invest in Africa’s finest startups here.
We need more IPOs as it makes people pay attention on the promises. Interswitch and Andela should get ready. This is good business as the world pays attention on Africa and Nigeria! Tekedia coverage of the IPO is here.
---
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.