Glovo Nigeria Managing Director Lamide Akinola Steps Down

In Short

• Glovo Nigeria managing director Lamide Akinola has stepped down after three years.
• She led a shift toward quick commerce, which includes groceries, pharmacy, and other retail categories.
• Glovo says Nigeria is now its fastest-growing market globally.

What Happened

Glovo Nigeria has a leadership change. Lamide Akinola is stepping down as managing director after a three-year run.

Akinola joined Glovo in 2021 as head of q-commerce for Sub-Saharan Africa. Q-commerce means delivering everyday items like groceries and medicine fast, often from small local warehouses called dark stores, which are not open to walk-in shoppers. She later became Glovo Nigeria country head on July 1, 2023.

In a LinkedIn post, Akinola said she helped build the business into an $80 million operation and described Nigeria as Glovo’s fastest-growing market. During her tenure, Glovo expanded across cities including Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.

Glovo also leaned harder into non-restaurant categories. The company said this strategy drove 76% year-on-year growth in gross merchandise value, which is the total value of goods sold on the platform before fees. Glovo added that riders’ average monthly earnings rose to about two to three times the national minimum wage.

Since launching in Nigeria in 2021, Glovo says it has invested more than ₦54 billion in the country. It also said it has facilitated more than 40 million deliveries, and that the economic value created for businesses on its platform more than doubled in the past year.

Why It Matters

Food delivery in Nigeria is becoming a broader last-mile logistics business. As inflation, currency swings, and logistics costs stay high, platforms that can balance unit economics across food, groceries, and pharmacy deliveries tend to be more resilient.

For merchants, Glovo’s growth and training programs like Glovo Academy signal rising competition for SME demand, and more pressure to improve fulfillment and customer experience. For riders, leadership changes can affect incentive structures, service levels, and city expansion plans.

The next signal to watch is who takes over the Nigeria role, and whether Glovo keeps investing at the same pace while defending market share in on-demand delivery and quick commerce.