Following its recent acquisition of e-commerce giant Konga.com, stakeholders in the West African country's e-commerce ecosystem have hinted at the possibility of a merger with Yudala, an ecommerce company founded by the son of the Chairman of Zinox Group.

However, sources at the OEM and ICT conglomerate Zinox Group have denied any discussion of a merger and say the companies operate independently.

Last week Zinox acquired Konga.com, including KOS-Express (Konga's logistics arm) and KongaPay, the company's integrated mobile money payment channel with over 100,000 users.

The deal was approved by Nigeria's Stock Exchange Commission (SEC) and followed months of negotiation between Konga management and investors Naspers and AB Kinnevik.

While there has been no official confirmation of the price of the acquisition, several sources have mentioned an amount of US$10 million.

Gideon Ayogu, Zinox Group's Head of Communications, said the Group had always been interested in both Konga and Jumia and this was an opportunity to acquire more companies at once.

"Today, many Nigerians can attribute their first experience of e-commerce to Konga.com and we are excited to be a part of this remarkable story," Ayogu said.

Ayogu said Zinox aims to revolutionise e-commerce in Africa, with plans to launch Konga in other African countries. He added that Konga is not yet making profits.

"In addition to positioning the business on a path of profitability in the short term, our long term plans are focused around seeing Konga well established in other African capitals. Furthermore, we will be unveiling a lot of new initiatives soon and we advise shoppers and merchants alike to look out for these innovations which will radically reshape the average customer experience of e-commerce in Nigeria and on the continent."

Zinox launched BuyRightAfrica.com in the very early days of ecommerce in Nigeria. This failed due to the non-existence of online payment solutions at the time and the Group is now looking at a major return to the market.