GHANA – Classifieds site Jiji has acquired Ghanaian-based classifieds site Tonaton in a consolidation move in Ghana adding to its leading market positions in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, the amount of the transaction was undisclosed.
Tonaton, a subsidiary of Saltside, was the main Jiji competitor in Ghana at the time of its purchase by Jiji earlier this month.
The acquisition will give Jiji and Tonaton users access to a larger network of buyers and sellers increasing trading opportunity and aggregate user base in what is seen as a major market consolidation in the classifieds sector.
Since the acquisition, Tonaton has quickly grown in popularity, thanks to innovations that make it easier for users to buy and sell online, a strategy aligned with Jiji’s mission.
“Over the past eight years, Tonaton has built a strong team of more than 70 people that will hugely contribute to our future growth,” said Yuliy Shenfeld, Director of African Operations at Jiji.
The Director added that the combination of Jiji’s technology and talent with that of Tonaton will help ensure our continued success in the fast-paced e-commerce industry.
Jiji is the largest e-commerce company in Africa by GMV (more than US$10 billion), leading in small to high-involvement key categories such as cars and real estate.
The platform has carefully secured a reliable base towards streamlining its services to a projected market of 400 million-plus users amounting to over US$10 billion in gross merchandise in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda.
The company is currently creating at full-tilt hundreds of thousands of new jobs throughout Africa, which effectively address and help remedy gaps in both unemployment and frictional unemployment.
This follows Jiji’s prior acquisition of OLX in 2019 and its recent acquisition of Cars45 in 2021, a deal that sees the company well-positioned to tap into a larger share of the African market.
The diversification of its portfolio of services and regions has been a consistent theme for Jiji.
The platform’s goal is to build a company that gives every user in Africa the opportunity to buy goods cheaper and reduce environmental impact through the recirculation of valuable goods.
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