Jumia Appoints Vinod Goel As New Kenya CEO

e-commerce company, Jumia, has announced the appointment of Vinod Goel as its new Regional CEO East Africa. He will manage both Kenya and Uganda as direct CEO.

Vinod takes over the Kenyan mantle from Charles Ballard, who recently joined Twiga Foods as new CEO. He has, however, been serving as the Jumia Ugandan CEO. During his tenure as Jumia Uganda CEO, he turned the business around, both in terms of significant top line growth and achieving sharp unit economics.

Jumia Kenya is entering a growth phase and needs leadership which can accelerate growth while generating a sustainable profitable business. Jumia is confident that Vinod has the drive and the skillset to achieve these ambitions.

This appointment is also in line with Jumia’s strategy of developing senior CEOs in key regional markets. The strategy has worked well in West Africa where Jumia is able to generate significant synergies among countries in the same region.

Speaking on the appointment, Vinod said that he’s deeply honored and excited to lead Jumia’s operations in Kenya and Uganda during this exciting phase of growth.

“Our commitment to delivering an innovative, convenient, and affordable online shopping experience remains unwavering. Additionally, we are dedicated to fostering more brand partnerships with both local and global companies. We are witnessing huge interest from global brands such as Starlink, to be their sole partner and new brands to launch their products. We will also support brands to launch and expand in other Jumia markets to make them truly pan-African brands starting with Kenya and Uganda,” Vinod remarked.

Vinod started with Jumia in 2020 as Head Global Fulfillment Operations, overseeing operations across all Jumia markets. He played a pivotal role in making Jumia shipping faster, cheaper and double the size in one and a half years. In 2022 he became the Chief Executive Officer overseeing the expansion and deployment of Jumia Uganda where he successfully turned the business around.

Prior to Jumia, Vinod worked in Strategy, Finance and Supply Chain with Lafarge Group, a French conglomerate, and was based in Europe, Asia and Africa. He has also worked as a software engineer in India earlier in his professional career. Vinod earned a B.S. in Engineering and also holds a dual MBA degree from MDI Gurgaon in India and ESCP Europe in London.