Jumia Employee Stole Ksh 21 Million Through System Manipulation

Jumia has disclosed that one of its employees in Kenya manipulated its payment system and stole at least 21 million shillings adding pain to a platform that has been posting massive losses in Kenya. Jumia says most of its employees in Kenya are untrustworthy.

“In September 2022, we discovered that an employee in Kenya manipulated certain vendor payment entries and misappropriated payments in 2021 and 2022… any such illegal, fraudulent or collusive activities by our employees could have a material adverse effect on our business,” said Jumia in a statement.

The revelation comes after Trend Micro released a new report that shows Kenya’s losses to cyber criminals reached Ksh 3.6 billion (USD 36 million) in 2022, compared to Nigeria and South Africa where they are nearly tenfold at Ksh 50 billion (USD 500 million) and Ksh 57 billion (USD 570 million) respectively.

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The report, titled Risky Rewards, is the result of a survey where Trend Micro commissioned Sapio Research to poll 2718 business decision-makers in companies with over 250 employees across 26 countries and finds that all the affected organizations have maintained inadequate cyber security measures, leaving them highly exposed.

Zaheer Ebrahim, the Middle East and Africa Solutions Architect at Trend Micro said in a statement that 90% of African companies have neglected to put cybersecurity protocols in place even as they plan to increase their cybersecurity budgets for 2023.

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“Organisations would do well to reconsider the importance of cybersecurity, especially if they want to optimize their investments in this area. Cybersecurity isn’t just about keeping data and other related resources safe. It has a clear impact on winning new business and recruiting top talent. With this in mind, it is vital that we change perceptions around cybersecurity, especially amongst corporate leaders,” said Ebrahim.

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