Sheriff finally came out with it. He is leaving his business analyst role at Konga to try his hand at fashion e-commerce with Zima Fashion. I’m still not clear on all the details (the startup’s founders, founding details, the premise, all that stuff), just that Sheriff will be chief operating officer.
Before he joined Konga, Sheriff Shittu was one of the most visible evangelists of the Nigerian technology ecosystem, and his work had a profound influence on me. The first technology event I attended was in 2010, Barcamp Lagos, and that was his doing. He also ran a prominent Nigerian technology blog at the time, while working on a number of ideas of his own — Traffic monitor, Lokoso, among others.
Sheriff worked at Konga for 18 months. Of his experience there, Sheriff said –
“it was a glorious opportunity to add value and learn to scale startup in a fast and agile environment. I thank Sim in particular for the opportunity. I learnt a lot working at Konga, from a startup of a few thousand dollars a month to millions of dollars. To have added value as we grew was a privilege.”
Zima Fashion is a female-focused ecommerce company that first started as an offline business with a physical outlet in Lekki that has since become successful. Its luck didn’t translate online in 2012 though, when its founder, Lisa Anekwe recognised and tried to catch the Nigerian ecommerce wave.
Sheriff says they met a few months ago, and decided that with their respective antecedents, there was enough value on the table to make another go at it. For his part, Sheriff is banking on his Konga experience to stand him in good stead as COO of ZimaFashion.com.
“I’m bringing to the table industry and e-commerce experience to ensure that this adventure is executed in the best possible manner. Having worked at Konga since its early days and a participant in key moments, I believe we can be the leader in our chosen vertical”.
