Leading Nigerian online mall, Konga.com, has announced that it will lay off some of its employees, as part of its business development strategy whereby it reviews staff strength every 6 months. Konga has been doing this consistently over the last 2 years and usually lets go of staff that still go on and do great things elsewhere.

The CEO of Konga, Shola Adekoya stated that: “The restructuring which also entails workforce reduction is a prudent and necessary step for the long term success of the company. The reorganizing will also impact the business model as we continue to do retail but only focus on the products that customers really like with high throughput in the warehouse and that will leave other products to strategic merchants that will take over some of the products in a marketplace fashion”.

A Konga warehouse. Photo Credit: Konga

Currently, Konga has about 20,000 products retailed through its platform. Based on previous interviews I have had with former Konga chief executive, fashion items and consumer electronics rank the highest on their sales volume. As from September, Konga will optimize its warehouse and allow merchants begin to store items in its warehouse which facilitates quicker shipping times for customers.

This restructuring which is focused on reconfiguration and reallocating resources to focus on areas that offer the highest growth opportunities and alignment with Konga’s strategic objectives is absolutely necessary for Konga in becoming the engine of commerce and trade in Africa. The downside however, are the victims – many of the staff who were pouched from prestigious companies and are now let off to a harsh labour market. For example, during the last downsizing exercise, the former PR head Olatomiwa Akande was fired. She was poached from Procter & Gamble where she was Communications Manager. Procter & Gamble! Now she works as head of PR at Slimtrader.

Konga has not declared the number of employees that would be resigned. But in January 80 well-trained and experienced talents (10 percent of its workforce) were laid off. You have to give it to Konga though, its employees are fine talents. Former development head Sheriff Shittu has gone on to found one of the country’s leading online furniture showroom. Former Marketing VP Onyeka Akumah has gone on to raise $2 million and co-founded online travel management company Travelbeta.com while acquiring and investing in several other start-ups.