Nigeria's first online shopping platform and the subsidiary of Africa Internet Group (AIG), Jumia, is shutting down its 'Jumia Market' division, formerly known as Kaymu and has laid off 80% of its staff.

This according to Nigerian tech blog, Techpoint, which reports that Jumia Market's staff of 70 personnel now only has 15 left, comprised of only the engineering team who will reportedly be rerouting all Jumia Market's traffic to Jumia's main site.

As reported by techweez, the division is closing down amidst growing challenges faced by the online platform.

An excerpt from a Business Day online report reads, "The online shopping platform has faced an economic meltdown by merging its Jumia Market (Kaymu), into Jumia Mall, another of its subsidiaries due to under performance and slow growth in Nigeria's e-commerce space."

According to techweez, AIG rebranded all its e-commerce subsidiaries to Jumia In June 2016 in an effort to shore up the company's marketing efforts while cashing in on the vast brand recognition Jumia possessed.

Jovago became Jumia Travel, Lamudi became Jumia House, Carmudi became Jumia Cars, Everjobs became Jumia Jobs, Vendito became Jumia Deals, Hello Food became Jumia Food and Kaymu became Jumia Market. Jumia Market (Kaymu) was launched back in 2013 as an online market place through which merchants could sell their products.

In May 2017, Jumia Market changed in course and shifted focus from electronics and phones to fashion. The company announced that it wanted to become an online social shopping platform, "The new Instagram of e-commerce".

"Things have not been going well for Jumia Group as a whole," reports techweez, who add that in April this year, one of the companies that invested in AIG called Rocket, reported a dip in their revenue that was attributed to Jumia's losses.

Techpoint adds that there has been no official word from the company, however, Jumia Market's website is still functional.