Anthony Mbagwu has been appointed as the managing director of Jumia's Nigerian fintech arm, JumiaPay. Prior to joining JumiaPay, Mbagwu held the position of senior business development and partnership manager at PalmPay, a rival fintech company, for a period of ten months.

With over 15 years of experience in the financial services sector, Mbagwu has previously served as head of business support at Unified Payments and head of service operations at Access Bank. Jumia's 2023 filing indicates that PalmPay is considered one of JumiaPay's main competitors.

JumiaPay, which is integrated as a payment method on platforms like Jumia, processed approximately 39.5% of Jumia orders in 2023. Additionally, it offers a standalone app for users to conduct bank transfers, bill payments, loans, and merchant payments. Notably, JumiaPay's primary customer is said to be its parent company.

In 2023, JumiaPay processed $192 million in payments for 8.4 million orders, a figure that falls short of the $5 billion monthly transactions reported by Palmpay. Mbagwu will be reporting to Sunil Natraj, the CEO of Jumia Nigeria.

His appointment aligns with Jumia's strategic shift towards profitability, which has involved staff layoffs and the closure of its food delivery division to enhance revenue. As of the end of 2023, Jumia's revenue stood at $186.4 million, as per SEC filings.

These efforts have been positively received by investors, with the company's share price rising to $12.16 at the time of this report, nearly quadrupling its value from the beginning of the year.