What you need to understand about this tale is that this was always about an exit. No "Africa rising" narrative or impetus. An exit, pure and simple. There was a global (LATAM, SEA and India) IPO plan and that is what Rocket were executing against. The war was a distraction, but it helped a lot. No way they would have been able to raise that much money without the validation of Naspers, but the fight against Konga is the reason why Jumia is in the hole it is in now.
Oliver's strategy was simple; we need to show that there is a viable market, with customers and answer the question; can ecommerce work? Proving that quickly, at any cost, was the model. Phase 1 - biggest markets in the world - show that there is a market there. For whatever reason this doesn't prove to be the case, then they exit. In 2012 this is what essentially happened when they fired 400 people and exited Turkey & Dubai and essentially the wider MENA region.
The German clone factory plans to compl...