Nigeria slipped into recession in August as the effects of the global slump in oil prices, coupled with militant attacks that have slashed Nigeria’s oil production, continued to bite. Since the central bank removed a currency peg in June, the value of the naira has ballooned against the dollar, amplifying a foreign exchange shortage in the country.
But despite such testing financial circumstances, Shola Adekoya, the head of Nigerian e-commerce giant Konga.com, is optimistic that Nigerians will not be tightening their purse strings ahead of the year’s main shopping event as the Black Friday has arrived at the rescue.
“Nigerians deserve a discount, a break from expensive products,” Adekoya tells Newsweek. “Even though the economy is going through a tough time, Nigerians still spend. But the question is what they are going to spend their money on, how to get the best value for their money.”
Konga is running its annual pre-Black Friday event known as Yakata—a word from Nigeria’s Yoruba language that translates as “when something big falls in a big way”—between November 18-21, a three-day period of price cuts across the board. It will also offer further discounts on November 25 itself. Jumia, meanwhile, commenced a 12-day discount event Monday, with different deals on different days: men’s clothes and products drop on November 16, for example, while women’s apparel goes down on November 23.
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