Jumia has announced the appointment of Charles Ballard as the new CEO of Kenya, effective immediately.
Charles takes over from Juan Seco who left Jumia after to join a pan-African player in the FinTech space after 8 years of dedicated service.
“I am excited to continue driving the e-commerce narrative in rural Kenya where more than 70% of the population lives. Access to Modern Retail is a challenge in these areas, which is a great opportunity to grow our online marketplace. E-commerce can bring better prices, more choices, and convenience to the rural Kenyans,” said Charles Ballard.
Ballard has been with Jumia Kenya since 2019, when he first joined as Head of Performance and Planning. He would later in 2021 become the Chief Operating Officer, overseeing the expansion and deployment of Jumia activities in Kenya. In 2022, he was named Senior Vice President of Commercials.
Prior joining Jumia, he served as a Retail Consultant at Sagaci Research in Kenya from 2015 to 2019. He has also been the Deputy CFO at ACTED an international humanitarian NGO, from 2012 to 2015.
Charles has lived in Kenya for almost a decade now. His promotion to Kenya CEO at Jumia represents an opportunity for another ‘homegrown Jumee’ to grow. He is a perfect example of the breadth and depth of the career paths that Jumia has to offer, and we plan to grow an even stronger team to pursue the work we have started. He will also continue to be intensely involved with Customer Experience initiatives at the core of our business.