OLX Shuts Down Offices in Nigeria, Lays Off Workers

By Dipo Olowookere

Outlets of popular online classified advert platform, OLX, in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana would be shut down.

According to multiple reports, offices of OLX in these three African nations would be closed by the end of March this year.

OLX, a global classifieds platform, has physical presence in nearly 40 countries, but has struggled to gain confidence of users in Nigeria, especially with some people falling victims of fraudsters who allegedly use the platform to carry out their operations.

Few years ago, a woman in Lagos, who used OLX to employ a housemaid, fell victim of kidnapping when her children were abducted by the maid she got through the classified advert platform.

There have also been other reported cases of users being duped through the website, which necessitated management of the company to hire prolific filmmaker, Mr Kunle Afolayan, to endorse the platform as a place to genuinely sell their products with ease, especially used items.

With the latest development, workers of OLX at offices in these three countries would be laid off, but what Business Post cannot verify is if some would be retained.

However, there are strong indications that OLX will still have presence in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, but would operate remotely.

CEO of OLX in Asia, Middle East and Africa, Mr Sjoerd Nikkelen, in a statement, confirmed the shutting down of the firm’s offices in Nigeria.

“We made a difficult but important decision in Nigeria to consolidate our operations between some of our offices internationally.

“Our marketplace will continue to operate here — uninterrupted — as it has since 2010, and we remain committed to the many people here 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 in the country.

“Of course, we are committed to helping our affected colleagues during this transition and have already offered them meaningful financial and other support.

“As we’ve expressed to them directly, we are extremely grateful for their many significant contributions to OLX’s success,” Mr Nikkelen said.