The founder of Konga, Sim Shagaya has reignited a 7-year old war with his reaction to the Jumia scandal of $17.5 million improper orders, inflated figures and U.S class action for false statement claimed to have been used to deceive investors.

Shagaya was the Chief Executive Officer of Konga before stepping down earlier this year. His position is now occupied by Shola Adekoya. Konga is the closest rival of Jumia in Africa. Both e-commerce companies started operation in Nigeria before branching out to other Neighbouring countries.

In a series of tweets on his social media handle, Twitter (@SimShagaya), Shagaya condemned the false statement Jumia was accused to have given their investors. According to Shagaya, such act has a detrimental ripple effect on other players and customers.

What Jumia did: Nairametrics had reported that Jumia is battling several issues like improper orders by some of its employees, several class-action lawsuits for misinforming investors, as well as the increasing losses which grew 59.2% in one year.

While admitting that he and his partners in Konga made mistakes during his time at the helm of affairs at Konga, he said they never deceived investors like Jumia is being accused of.

In his assertion, engaging in such activity hurts the whole e-commerce chain, “We made many operational mistakes in the companies I founded but one thing we never did was mislead investors. Never. @JasonNjoku (Founder of IrokoTV) was prescient several years ago (paraphrasing): the actions of players who do this not only hurt themselves & their investors but entire ecosystems.”

Jumia management knows: While he didn’t name Jumia, Shagaya said there was no way Jumia’s employees engaged in fraud of $17 million without support from the management of the company.

“For someone who has built a large-scale e-commerce business, I can confidently tell you that there is no way that a $10m+ fraud can happen without the complicity or, at the minimum, the tacit consent of management. It’s impossible.”

Jumia hurting Konga: Shagaya in his Twitter thread, said Konga is being hurt by the activities Jumia has been accused of and the figure inflation by Jumia workers.

He said investors are constantly comparing Konga’s growth with that of Jumia whenever they had a meeting and this usually pained him. According to Shagaya, Jumia’s ‘make-believe’ figures were often rubbed on his face, with investors asking.... https://nairametrics.com/2019/08/22/kongas-sim-shagaya-reignites-e-commerce-war-as-he-reacts-to-jumias-scandal/