More Nigerians Become Unemployed As OLX Closes Shop

No fewer than 100 more Nigerians is set to become redundant after OLX, one of Africa’s leading e-commerce platforms, announced shut down of its business operations in Nigeria.

According to a source at the firm, the staff were informed of the decision via a memo on Tuesday.

Staff were reportedly notified of their termination beginning in March, followed by the management team in April.

Uche Nwagboso, the company’s Public Relations and Communications Lead, who confirmed the development, said the company has made provision for financial compensation for the affected workers.

“We made a difficult but important decision in Nigeria to consolidate our operations between some of our offices internationally. Our marketplace will continue to operate here – uninterrupted – as it has since 2010, and we remain committed to the many people here who use our platform to buy and sell every month,” Nwagboso said.

“We continue to be focused on constantly innovating to make sure that OLX remains the top classified platform in the country. Of course, we are committed to helping our affected colleagues during this transition and have already offered them meaningful financial and other support.

“As we’ve expressed to them directly, we are extremely grateful for their many significant contributions to OLX’s success.”

The online marketplace has been struggling to make its businesses in Nigeria viable since it launched in the country in 2012.

The e-commerce business owned by Naspers, said it had more than three million sellers and buyers registered on its platform in 2015 and reported that items valued at N12.1tn were posted for sale on its website in 2016.

Founded in March 2006, and headquartered in New York City, United States, OLX operates in 45 countries and has an average of 54 million monthly listings of items for sale on its website.