By Dipo Olowookere
A classifieds heavyweight in Ghana, Tonaton, has been fully acquired by a leading marketplace in Africa, Jiji, as part of its desire to totally conquer the continent.
Tonaton is the main competitor of the Kenyan-based venture in Ghana and in line with its strategic expansion, Jiji approached Saltside for a takeover of the firm.
Since the acquisition, Tonaton has quickly grown in popularity, thanks to innovations that make it easier for users to buy and sell online, a strategy aligned with Jiji’s mission.
Jiji and Tonaton users will now have access to a larger network of buyers and sellers, which will significantly increase trading opportunity and aggregate user base in what is seen as a major market consolidation in the classifieds sector.
With the deep penetration of Tonaton in the Ghanaian classifieds sector as the go-to platform and factoring in its leading position in Ghana’s transactional used auto market, Jiji has carefully secured a reliable base towards streamlining their services to a projected (SSA) market of 400 million-plus users – a market in which it currently sits as the indisputable leader in several key countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda, amounting to over $10 billion in gross merchandise value.
According to the Director of African Operations at Jiji, Yuliy Shenfeld, “Jiji achieved great success with only a limited presence in Ghana; more than 2 million people visit our website each month.
“Over the past eight years, Tonatonhas built a strong team of more than 70 people that will hugely contribute to our future growth. The combination of Jiji’s technology and talent with that of Tonaton will help ensure our continued success in the fast-paced e-commerce industry.”
The CEO and co-founder of Jiji, Mr Anton Volianskyi, clarified that “with OLX and Cars45 under Jiji’s umbrella, we are getting close to becoming a regional leader in classifieds.
“Jiji is the largest e-commerce company in Africa by GMV (more than $10 billion), leading in small to high-involvement key categories such as cars and real estate.
“We hold the rank of the best app in e-commerce proudly with a rating of 4.5/5, a gauge of satisfaction from our millions and millions of daily users. The picture is much larger.
“Our goal is to build a company that gives every user in Africa the opportunity to buy goods cheaper and reduce environmental impact through what is effectively a developing lateral economy built on a safe and productive recirculation of valuable goods.
“We are currently creating at full-tilt hundreds of thousands of new jobs throughout Africa, which allows us to effectively address and help remedy gaps in both unemployment and frictional unemployment.”
Business Post recalls that in 2019, Jiji acquired OLX and two years later, it took over Cars45, positioning itself to tap into a larger share of the African market.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Business Post Contributor