OLX on Verge of Leaving Nigerian Market

As Konga is being sold to Zinox, OLX Nigeria was issuing notices to the staff of imminent exit from the Nigerian classified ad market.

Tuesday, OLX Group closed its Nigerian office after writing the staff.

It remains unclear why the investors pulled out OLX from Nigeria and possibly other African markets, except South Africa, according to a report by TechEconomy.ng

Naspers founded in 1915, is a global internet and entertainment group and one of the largest technology investors in the world and has sunk about $40milllion in OLX since 2010.

While making the investment in 2010, Naspers also bought out the shares of all of OLX’s previous investors, which include Nexus Venture Partners, The Founders Fund, DN Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Bessemer Venture Partners.

Prior to this round of funding, OLX had raised nearly $30 million.

But in an email to TechEconomy.ng, PR & Communications Lead, OLX Nigeria, Uche Nwagboso, confirmed a statement by the Group thus:

According to OLX Group: “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.

This was the process adopted by Efritin when it exited Nigerian market last year.

TechEconomy.ng learnt the latest development affected almost all the staff, except few top management who will surprise the close wind up of activities in the market.

But the OLX Group claims: “We continue to be focused on constantly innovating to make sure that OLX remains the top classifieds 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.”