Jumia got dumped

Baillie Gifford has left the chat.

African e-commerce giant Jumia’s largest institutional investor just dumped all its shares, ending a six-year bet that once backed the “Amazon of Africa” through thick and thin. The British investment firm which once held over 11% of Jumia, stuck around after the initial public offer (IPO), and even topped up during the chaos. But as of this month, it’s holding exactly 0%.

It likely sold at a steep loss—possibly 80 to 90%. That’s not just painful, it’s loud. What does that do for investor confidence? When a century-old, long-term player known for backing Tesla and Shopify throws in the towel, smaller investors take note.

Jumia’s new CEO, Francis Dufay, has promised to break even by 2026 and hit profitability in 2027. But Baillie Gifford’s exit screams that not everyone is buying the pitch. 

Jumia’s revenue dropped 26% in Q1 2025, its losses are also rising again. In a bid for profitability, the company also exited some markets—South Africa and Tunisia—to sharpen its focus on key markets. It’s down to nine markets, running lean with $111 million in the bank—enough for maybe two years of runway.

All hope is not lost: Jumia orders are up in smaller cities, JumiaPay, its embedded finance app, is gaining traction, and logistics could unlock new revenue streams. But without Baillie Gifford, could Jumia be running out of lifelines?

However, it appears the e-commerce company is running without a financial safety net. To survive, Jumia needs to prove that its lean model can actually scale and that its payments and logistics services can grow into something bigger than just a side hustle.

The survival game is on. And now, Jumia is playing without the backing of its largest investor.

It has taken five years of regulatory back and forth, but 9mobile has finally secured approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to launch national roaming services on MTN Nigeria’s infrastructure in June 2025.

Think of it like this: As a 9mobile user, if you find yourself in a place where there is no signal, before you get the chance to point fingers at 9mobile again, your phone will automatically connect to MTN’s stronger signal.

A lifeline for 9mobile. In April 2025, 9mobile’s market share plummeted to 1.72%, down from 6.6% in 2020. This move is an opportunity for the operator to regain lost ground, due to chronic service disruptions and coverage gaps, without spending money on building out its national infrastructure. With Glo’s market share falling to 11.9% in April 2025, 9mobile actually has a fighting chance at becoming number three in the telecoms industry—MTN and Airtel are currently the largest telcos, commanding 86% of the market combined.

It’s a win-win. This deal is seen as a win-win for both operators. While 9mobile piggybacks off MTN’s infrastructure, MTN, in turn, gets access to 9mobile’s unused spectrum. 9mobile has frequency bands that cover wide areas and improve the capacity in areas where network congestion is a persistent issue. For MTN’s 84 million subscribers, access to this spectrum could reduce network congestion and improve their experience.

Zoom out: All eyes turn to 9mobile as they prepare to launch their national roaming. Will they pull this off, increase their market share, and bump Globacom a step down in the telecoms race? Or will they botch it and lose more of their market share?

Now, Elon Musk and Starlink have done it.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country's telecom regulator, has said it is now investigating SpaceX and Starlink, the satellite internet service provider (ISP), and whether it has been “illegally” operating in the country.

Is Starlink guilty? Without a doubt, yes. For months, South Africans have been using Starlink's service. They simply plug in to the roaming feature that allows them to use the service from neighbouring countries like Botswana, where Starlink legally operates. Some of these South Africans also smuggled Starlink kits from resellers in neighbouring countries.

This is not ‘legal’ and Starlink, on one occasion, warned about this. But South Africans paid no mind. Starlink too, could have enforced a blanket ban in the country, but it only skirted around it for a short period.

Now, with the much-contested debate in South Africa around whether Starlink should come into the country or not, this puts a new spin on the matter. ICASA will definitely find Starlink at fault for operating illegally. But Starlink will likely not face serious penalties, especially if it plays its cards right.

What’s really at stake is its formal entry. On May 23, South Africa proposed an “equity equivalent” policy: foreign tech firms can legally operate without giving up ownership stakes, as long as they commit to investing locally—through infrastructure, training, or skills development. 

That’s a lifeline for Starlink. It bypasses the historically strict 30% equity rule that’s kept global ISPs at bay. If Starlink seizes the opportunity and complies, it could unlock Africa’s largest broadband market. If it doesn’t, it may be locked out indefinitely.