OLX, the online marketplace that gained prominence in Kenya, will now be bought by a leading online marketplace from Nigeria, Jiji.
The agreement, which is pending regulatory approval will see them acquire the Nasper’s owned OLX subsidiary, which includes OLX Nigeria, OLX Ghana, OLX Kenya, OLX Tanzania and OLD Uganda. This will mean all of these websites will now be redirected to Jiji.
Thanks to this move, Jiji will now command a user base of just over eight million unique monthly active users and serves a combined population of over 300 million people.
“We extend the warmest welcome to OLX’s users to Jiji and look forward to transforming the online retail experience in Africa as the region continues to transform itself economically and technologically,” Anton Volyansky, Jiji’s co-founder and CEO was quoted as saying.
“With our focus on accelerating the growth of other markets, now is an opportune time to sell our interests in these markets,” OLX’s GM for MEA said. “We are pleased that Jiji will continue to provide exceptional quality of products and services that the customers in these countries have come to know and enjoy from OLX.”
Jiji is a big deal in Nigerian e-commerce where they have more than 6 million unique active users and 50,000 sellers who have listed more than 1 million items in the country.
OLX closed its Kenyan and Nigerian offices back in February this year and they ended up consolidating operations between some offices. Now the fact that they have been acquired means that the once popular marketplace will now be a part of Jiji’s empire.