KENYA – E-commerce platform Jumia has announced the appointment of Betty Mwangi, as Kenya’s new Chief Executive Officer to take over from former boss Sam Chappatte.

The company said Betty will focus on accelerating corporate growth.

Betty is an engineer with 20 years of experience in the telecommunications, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries, she previously served as Group Commercial Director for Britam Group PLC from 2016 to 2021, a company she originally joined in 2013.

She also worked as Director of Financial Services for Safaricom MPESA from inception in 2007 to 2016. 

Betty has an impressive track record and brings a great breadth and depth of experience to Jumia. She will play an important role in furthering our customer-focused commitment as we reach an inflection point in our growth trajectory,” said Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, co-CEOs of Jumia.

Jumia, Kenya’s online retailer was established in May 2013 with the aim and vision to become the one-stop shop for retail in Kenya with the implementation of best practices both online and offline.

According to the e-commerce platform, they are at present,  the largest online retail store in Kenya. At inception, they did an average delivery time of a week, today we do, on average, delivery in 1-5 days.

Initially starting with 3 employees, Jumia presently has a staff strength of 1000 young and entrepreneurial Kenyans including our 150 strong customer service team available 7 days a week.

Upon the announcement, Mwangi assured that through her new position she would accelerate the growth of e-commerce in Kenya while maintaining Jumia’s strong position as the number one shopping online platform.

“I look forward to working with the team to expand the Jumia universe and trust that my experience and passion for digital innovation will help to propel Jumia to greater heights,” Mwangi said.

She was previously recognized as one of the Top 10 most influential women in the mobile telecommunication industry by Mobile Communications International (MCI) and was also named twice as one of the Top 20 most powerful African women.

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