Online classifieds site OLX has confirmed a planned shutdown of its physical offices in Kenya and Nigeria.
The company, however, said it will still offer its services in the country.“We made a difficult but important decision in Kenya and Nigeria to consolidate our operations between some of our offices internationally,” the firm said in a statement on Wednesday as quoted by Business Daily."Operations in Nigeria are also going to be affected by the restructuring. Our marketplace will continue to operate in Kenya and Nigeria- uninterrupted- as it has since 2010."The firm did not provide particular reasons for the move, only citing the need for consolidation.The company is owned by OLX BV, which is registered in the Netherlands and is operational in more than 40 countries. South Africa’s Naspers Group owns OLX BV.“We remain committed to the millions of Kenyans who use our platform to buy and sell every month. We continue to be focused on constantly innovating to make sure that OLX remains the top classifieds platform Kenya,” Peter Ndiang'ui, OLX country manager said.The firm said last year electronics were the most traded items on its platform with 330,000 goods listed for sale in 2016 alone.Kenya’s e-commerce sector is currently dominated by brands such as Jumia, Kilimall, OLX, Pigiame, among others.