In Africa I Discovered My America
Massimiliano Spalazzi should have stayed in Lagos for three months for the launch of a new entrepreneurial project. He has stayed there for five years. It was 2012 and Spalazzi, who had graduated two years earlier in International Management, a double degree program launched by Bocconi with Fudan University, was working at Rocket Internet. After his first experience as Entrepreneur in Residence in Sydney, Australia, he was ready to start the new e-commerce company of the group, Jumia, in South Africa, when he was told that the launch would be carried out in Nigeria instead. He took the opportunity at once and flew to set up the operations in Lagos.
Since then, he has been Marketing Manager, then Managing Director, Regional Director and Co-CEO of Jumia e-commerce. Today, he lives in Dubai, but spends a large part of his time in Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Algeria.
What kind of environment did you find when you first moved to Nigeria?
First of all, I found out that I had a distorted idea of the country. The capital Lagos has nothing to do with the Nigeria we imagine in Italy. I found a very young population growing up at a dizzying rate. When I arrived, population was just over 165 million, today is more than 185.
How about internet penetration?
Tremendous, not in relative, but in absolute terms. Nigeria has 91 million mobile connections, a remarkable figure if you think that the current number in Germany is 83 million. I found an emerging market with a great potential. The difficulty of finding offline products made e-commerce the obvious answer to the demand of a country that was at the beginning of the digitization process.
What was the main difficulty you encountered?
Gaining the trust of customers who associated online shopping with the infamous 419 scam. We have responded by offering a pay on delivery formula that does not require any advance online paying. Since then, the business has grown at a dizzying pace.
Are credit cards accepted and diffused?
Not very much. People use mobile money, which is more popular in Africa than in Europe. In Kenyan street markets, for instance, you do not see cash exchanges anymore. Most transactions go through mobile phones.
Does the presence of such a young population mean that there is a strong entrepreneurial drive?
Yes it does, and it happens in all African countries I have been to. The challenges for new entrepreneurs and obstacles such as the lack of electric power only stimulate talent. Many startups are emerging, just think of Yaba, the Lagos technology hub. Thats the home of Andela, the coding school that was funded by Mark Zuckerberg. Some African countries that are structurally disadvantaged in the development of the secondary and tertiary sectors are moving straight to the digital economy.
Africa is the world's most attractive investment destination, second only to North America...
I see no other place in the world with such a potential. There is an estimated 1.2 billion people that will increase to 2.5 billion in 2050. Digitalization is making them the most tech-savvy people in the world. They will master the way to shop, the way to program, the way to build companies online. In the meanwhile, mobile penetration is on the rise, business is done with a mobile phone.
What would you recommend to a graduate who would like to follow in your footsteps?
Universities such as Bocconi provide an excellent and necessary knowledge base, but unless you work for a large corporation you need to be street smart. It takes pragmatic, adventurous, easygoing people who are ready to take up new challenges every day. I have seen managers arrive, not adapt to the local context and run away after a few months.