Konga.com, one of Nigeria’s leading eCommerce companies has confirmed the appointment of Shola Adekoya as its new CEO.
Shola will be saddled with the responsibility of making Konga compete favourably with Jumia.com, its arch-rival in the Nigerian eCommerce sector estimated to be less than 1% of the national retail sales.
Shola has been in acting capacity since mid last year when Konga’s founder and CEO, Sim Shagaya reportedly went on a full year break from the company. Last November, Sim announced on his Twitter handle @SimShagaya, that he was stepping aside as the captain at Konga. Early January, he was confimed as the first Chairman of Konga.
Konga was launched in 2012 as an eCommerce company selling fast moving goods and baby products. Later that year, Konga received $3 million seed capital from Investment AB Kinnevik. In 2013, Kinnevik and South Africa’s Naspers Group (DSTV’s parent company) invested a Series A fund of $10 million in the company. Konga has further raised Series B of $23 million (the largest in the history of tech startups in Nigeria) from the two investors. The company has over 700 full staff according to its Wikipedia page and it is said to be worth ($1 billion)
With the current exchange rate regime, Konga and other eCommerce players are under intense pressure to increase sales and acquire more customers.
