He studied in France and the United States and gained experience working for several companies and management firms before joining Jumia some eight years ago.
Francis Dufay (photo) is an Ivorian entrepreneur and a Management and marketing graduate from the Global Alliance in Management Education (CEMS) and Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He was recently appointed CEO of the e-commerce group Jumia.
He formally became CEO of the unicorn in February 2023 but, he had been acting in the position since November 2022 when the e-commerce group's co-founders stepped down as co-CEOs. In that position, his role is to oversee Jumia's pan-African expansion into 11 countries, as well as the evolution of its products, which now include a marketplace, its payment arm JumiaPay, and a logistics platform, Jumia Logistics.
Jumia is a technology company built to help consumers conveniently access millions of goods and services while giving sellers a new avenue to reach more clients and grow their businesses. The company already has over 1 billion visits, 100,000 active sellers, 50 million products, and over 8 million active consumers in Africa.
Confident in the e-commerce group's potential, Francis Dufay says "we remain more than ever confident about the growth opportunity across our markets and are making fundamental improvements to our consumer value proposition which will help us drive sustainable long-term growth."
The new CEO joined Jumia as the managing director of Jumia Côte d'Ivoire. From March to November 2022, he was the executive vice president of Jumia in charge of African operations. Then, from November 2022 to February 2023, he was the Acting CEO of Jumia Group. He joined the professional world in 2009 when he was hired by McKinsey & Company as a business analyst. In 2012, he was appointed associate junior engagement manager for the same consulting firm.
In 2007, he interned as an analyst at Business France, the "national agency supporting the international development of the French economy." He completed another internship at Deloitte & Touche from September 2007 to February 2008.
Melchior Koba
