Adejoju Ajagunna is the Head of Customer Service at Jumia Nigeria. In
this interview, she spoke extensively on the challenges of working in
the covid-19 era, balancing the roles as a career woman and mother,
and the equal opportunity for career growth at the ecommerce
company. Excerpts:
What does International Women’s Day mean to you?
It means inspiration where I am inspired to dare and to do more. A day
where every female gender irrespective of our profession or status is
recognized globally, a day where it is important to celebrate the success
and growth of every woman, one who has been able to conquer, who
has been able to stand for her rights and explore the full potential of
herself with no restriction to any obstacle. We need to celebrate every
gender called “WOMAN” as the world appreciates our hard work,
resilience, struggles, wins and achievements, a day the world stands for
“US” and reflects on the impact we have made in society. Officially, a
day that is devoted in celebration of all women but to me, everyday is
IWD because we create magic always.
How has COVID 19 affected your role at Jumia since the pandemic
started?
2020 has been the most challenging and daring of my eight years in
Jumia where opportunities were explored and we had to adopt new
method by activating work from home in our attempt to ensure our
consumers do not lack general essential and food supply due to
restriction in movement for most parts of the country. At the
beginning, it was a struggle supporting the team to suddenly change
the dynamics of how we used to work by commencing remote working
and adapting to the new tools. Some of our team members were not
sure if this was going to be possible or if we could achieve our number
one goal of “winning the love of our customers” in a pandemic where
few of our processes had to be reviewed by ensuring all COVID 19
guidelines were adhered to. The pandemic has brought about CHANGE
where alternate channels of a new work-lifestyle are continuously
being integrated without compromising the JUMIA standard. With all of
these, I had to ensure we give time for the new learning curve,
adequate support for onboarding and mastering of the new method as
we are the Jumia Ambassadors.
What are the challenges you’ve encountered in your career as a
woman and how did you overcome them?
Well, most of my challenges came in my early stages of taking up a
leadership role especially with managing the largest team where
women are the largest team members, it was not easy managing the
diversity of all types of humans with the mindset that my processor was
male as such it was expected that the role should be dominated by the
male gender. I wore the shoes of a male gender and walked by keeping
the momentum and turning around the situation in the mantle of
leadership. It was also difficult to balance the curve of attaining a
leadership role and being an awesome mum to my children especially
when they were toddlers who could not understand why I could not be
present for story-time in their schools and feel saddened by my
unavailability but I have been able to create time at the homefront
while I make it up to them in creating that schooling atmosphere at
home by playing and learning which is moulding their values to create
opportunities. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade out of
it.
How will you say Jumia is contributing to the growth/development of
female staff?
There are several ways Jumia contributes to the development of her
female staff, one of such initiatives used in promoting gender equality
is the provision of mentor programmes which helps to guide us through
any challenge in the course of our career without any gender exclusion.
We also have the opportunity of the women forum where we all come
together to discuss business, obstacles, opportunities and work-life
balance and honestly, it has been engaging and rewarding as you see
staff from all levels relate and share learning, I would say, it's always a
way to learn, relearn and unlearn.
What impact has gender equality made on your life and work?
Jumia is an organization that allows you to explore opportunities as
long as you can earn them by hard work and a lot of positive push. One
of our core values “You don’t need a title to a leader” allows equal
rights among all which genuinely values your contribution and supports
you to grow even as a woman. Most of the C-levels in Jumia are women
who in one way or the other have contributed to the immense growth
of the business. Jumia has promoted equality as every opinion counts
irrespective of your sex or level.
What female figure motivates you?
Actually, there are two particular female figures that inspire me: one is
African while the other is American. The question for me is why these
two women inspire me: they are women who have made good use of
the opportunities around them with a powerful resilience not to stop
but continue to ensure that their achievements continue to impact the
lives of women especially the young and upcoming ones. The first figure
is Chimamanda Adichie who is a Nigerian, a writer of short stories and
novels, I am stuck on one of her quotes “When there is true equality,
resentment does not exist.” While my second female figure is Hilary
Clinton; a politician. Both women are an inspiration to me because of
their strong will and confidence level, I admire their courage in how
they have done things differently.
What is the most important piece of advice you’d give to a woman
thinking of starting her career?
There is so much pressure from the world out there where our young
women are not sure of who they are or what they stand for, which
sometimes makes them lose priority and focus. However, my message
to young women out there and generally to women “Be YOU…Be
ENOUGH”: fuel your passion, making mistakes is allowed, it does not
stop you from achieving your goals but in the end, you learn from it and
this makes you a better woman. Make sure you work hard and have fun
by celebrating your achievements and giving yourself a pat on the back.
