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Why former Jumia Travel boss Marek Zmysłowski left Nigeria
Marek Zmyslowski
It felt like paradise, in 2013, when the serial investor and
entrepreneur, Marek Zmysłowski, started Jovago, a hotel booking
platform, and Hotelonline.co, a hospitality software company.
Nigeria had become his latest home and it brought success,
Jovago, which became Jumia Travel, experienced double-digit growth
monthly and quickly became one of the biggest hotel booking sites
in Africa.
Still, Marek left
Marek had overtly professed his love for Nigeria, sharing
pictures of things that endeared him to the country severally, and
also getting the alias ‘Chinedu’ which he uses as part of his
social media handles @marekchinedu.
Marek confirmed in a blog post that in spite of his ups and
downs he was “confident of the bright future of Nigeria and the
business opportunities it presented for entrepreneurs like myself.
Great opportunities come with great risks though.
Fast forward to 2017, Chinedu was played a ruinous hand.
Everything went poof! Assets were seized, bank accounts frozen by
an order from the Nigeria police. He was up-to-date with his taxes
and had not broken the law. It was all very murky. However, things
got clearer.
“Like in a shitty Hollywood B movie, I was quickly given an
offer. A shady individual told me that all my problems will go
away, all I need to do is to send a symbolic sum of a couple of
hundred thousand dollars to a specific bank account,” Marek
wrote.
He found out that it was an attempt at the takeover of his
company and blackmail by his local business partners (whose names
he won’t release at this time), who had corrupted police
officials.
The Polish citizen didn’t budge, refused to negotiate, and took
the Nigerian police to court.
“But just like in a Hollywood movie, the good guys don’t
negotiate with the bad guys. I had nothing to lose, so I sued the
Nigerian police. Yes, you read that right.
“What’s even more amazing, I won. That was one of the “faith in
humanity restored” moments. I’m probably the only foreigner in the
history of Nigeria to sue its police and win. And to be still
alive.
“The court ruled illegality of all the actions by police and
even set a symbolic sum of ten thousand dollars to cover my “moral
damages”.”
It was a big win for Marek, but it also signalled, according to
him, “how fragile your position, and how illusory your sense of
safety can sometimes be.”
“I came out of my Nigerian blackmail adventure safe and sound,
mostly because of tons of luck. It could have been much, much
worse. The experience made me, however, reach my threshold.
“Especially when you live and work in countries with a
struggling democracy and economy. I’ve decided that I need to move
my assets, tax residency, or even citizenship to a country, where
abuses like that can’t happen, where the law is respected and
corruption is marginal.”
He left the shores of Nigeria for his next adventure, he kept
the name though and he needs pointers on how he can get his money
the court told the police to pay for damages.
“The police haven’t paid yet and I’m still trying to figure out
who I should call for help to get my “win money”.”
Marek has a second passport, these days and it isn’t the shiny
green one of Africa’s most populous country.
“I chose one of the Caribbean countries. I fell in love with
their zero income and inheritance tax.
“The government has a great opinion among international
entrepreneurs and the likelihood of becoming a victim of criminals,
as it happened to me in Nigeria, was significantly lower.”
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