Jumia has appointed Vinod Goel to lead its East African operations, replacing Charles Ballard, who recently became CEO of Kenya’s Twiga Foods, an agrotechnology company.

Goel, who is currently the CEO of the e-commerce platform of its Ugandan unit, will oversee Kenya and Uganda.

Goel is credited for growing Jumia’s business in Uganda.

“We are witnessing huge interest from global brands such as Starlink, to be their sole partner and new brands to launch their products overnight in the whole country. 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.”

Goel began working at Jumia in 2020 as Head of Global Fulfillment Operations, overseeing operations across all Jumia markets.

In 2022, he led the expansion and deployment of Jumia Uganda, successfully turning the business around.

Prior to Jumia, Vinod worked in strategy, finance, and supply chain with Lafarge Group and was based in Europe, Asia, and Africa.

He also worked as a software engineer in India earlier in his professional career.

Jumia announced that Goel has a B.S. in engineering and also holds a dual MBA degree from MDI Gurgaon in India and ESCP Europe in London.

“This 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.”