Hassanein Hiridjee, the founder and CEO of Axian Group, has recently joined the Supervisory Board of Jumia, as per a recent SEC filing. This development comes at the same time as Angela Mwanza, Managing Director of Rockefeller Capital Management, steps down from the board.
In a report by Techpoint Africa in June 2025, it was revealed that AXIAN Telecom had acquired an 8% stake in Jumia. Following this, Bloomberg reported that Axian, a company based in Mauritius with operations across 17 African and Middle Eastern markets, was considering a full acquisition of Jumia. At that point, Axian had increased its stake to 9.18%, valued at approximately $52.5 million, and had secured $600 million in bond funding to support its ambitions.
Axian’s involvement in Jumia’s cap table comes at a crucial time for the eCommerce company, which has faced challenges since its IPO. The company’s stock value plummeted from over $3 billion to a fraction of that, prompting several investors, including early supporter Baillie Gifford, to divest from Jumia.
With Hiridjee now on the Supervisory Board, Axian is poised to influence corporate governance and strategic decisions at Jumia, potentially guiding the company’s turnaround. Under the leadership of CEO Francis Dufay, Jumia has implemented significant cost-cutting measures to reduce losses and pave the way for profitability. Annual losses have decreased from around $206 million in 2022 to an expected $50-55 million in 2025.
Jumia is focusing on its core markets such as Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt, rather than spreading itself thin across the continent. The company is also expanding its presence in secondary cities and rural areas, with orders from these regions accounting for over 50% of total volume.
In the second quarter of 2025, Jumia saw a 25% growth in revenue, an 18% decrease in operating losses, and a halving of cash burn quarter-over-quarter. Additionally, approximately one-third of Jumia’s platform goods are now supplied by cross-border international sellers, particularly from China, indicating the company’s strategic positioning amidst increasing competition from rivals like Temu and Shein.
