Glovo Nigeria is entering a new leadership chapter as Lamide Akinola steps down as the company's Nigeria managing director after three years in the role, following a period in which the delivery platform significantly expanded its ambitions beyond restaurant food delivery.

Akinola joined Glovo in 2021 as Head of Q-Commerce for Sub-Saharan Africa, where she worked on expanding the company's grocery and retail operations before becoming General Manager of Glovo Nigeria in July 2023.

She has now left the country leadership role, with Reni Onafeko, formerly Glovo Nigeria's Head of Growth, having taken over as General Manager earlier in 2026.

The leadership transition comes as Nigeria has become one of Glovo's most important markets globally.

Glovo says Nigeria was its fastest-growing market globally in 2026, while the company has invested more than ₦54 billion in the Nigerian market since launching operations in 2021. It also says its platform has facilitated more than 40 million deliveries in the country.

From Food Delivery to Digital Commerce

Akinola's tenure coincided with Glovo's expansion from an app largely associated with restaurant delivery into a broader multi-category commerce platform.

The company has increasingly focused on Q-commerce, covering groceries, retail products and pharmaceuticals alongside its traditional restaurant marketplace.

That strategy reflects a larger change in how delivery platforms are competing in Nigeria.

Food delivery can generate frequent transactions, but expanding into everyday shopping gives platforms more opportunities to become part of consumers' daily routines.

Instead of opening the app only when someone wants lunch or dinner, customers can potentially use it to order groceries, medicine, household products and other everyday items.

Glovo has expanded partnerships with major retailers as part of that strategy. Its partnership with SPAR, for example, grew from an initial pilot to cover 10 outlets across Lagos and Abuja.

Akinola's Growth Period

Akinola took over the Nigeria leadership role at a time when the country's operating environment was becoming increasingly difficult for technology and logistics companies.

High inflation, currency volatility, rising fuel costs and infrastructure challenges have all increased the cost of running delivery businesses.

Yet Glovo says its Nigerian operation continued to grow.

In a public update, Akinola said the company closed December 2025 with almost twice its December 2024 order volume and ranked Nigeria as Glovo's fastest-growing market globally among its markets at the time.

She also said Glovo invested more than €5 million, or about ₦8.5 billion, in Nigeria during 2025 alone.

That investment came as other international technology companies were reducing their exposure to difficult African markets.

For Glovo, the decision was effectively a bet that Nigeria's large population, expanding digital consumer base and fragmented retail market could create a much larger opportunity over time.

Q-Commerce Became a Bigger Part of the Business

One of the most important changes during Akinola's period was the increasing importance of quick commerce.

Glovo's Q-commerce model covers categories where customers may want products delivered within a relatively short period rather than travelling to a supermarket, pharmacy or retail store themselves.

The company's expansion has included groceries, pharmaceuticals and other retail categories.

Glovo previously reported 76% year-on-year growth in Nigeria's Q-commerce segment in 2024, highlighting how quickly demand was developing in the category.

That expansion also changes what Glovo needs to be.

It is no longer simply a marketplace connecting restaurants and customers with riders.

It increasingly operates as a piece of the infrastructure connecting businesses, consumers and couriers across several categories of commerce.

The Platform Says It Has Generated Billions for Local Businesses

Glovo's expansion has also been tied to its pitch that digital marketplaces can help Nigerian businesses reach customers beyond their physical locations.

The company says its platform generated more than ₦71 billion in revenue for Nigerian local partners between 2021 and 2024, with more than 6,000 Nigerian businesses using the platform during that period.

More recently, Glovo said the economic value generated for businesses on its platform more than doubled in the past year.

These figures are company-reported measures, but they demonstrate the scale Glovo is positioning its marketplace to reach.

For smaller restaurants, retailers and other businesses, the platform can provide an additional digital sales channel without requiring them to build their own delivery network.

Riders Remain Central to the Model

Glovo's growth is also dependent on the thousands of independent couriers who fulfil deliveries.

Akinola highlighted rider earnings during her tenure, while Glovo's own rider documentation shows that courier income can include delivery fees, promotional payments, quests and customer tips.

Akinola previously said Glovo's highest-earning rider generated ₦14 million in 2025, while the company said it was creating income opportunities for thousands of couriers.

But the broader economics of platform delivery remain complicated.

Fuel prices, vehicle maintenance, traffic, weather, commissions, delivery distances and customer demand all affect how attractive individual delivery jobs are.

That makes rider economics an important part of the next phase of Glovo's Nigerian strategy.

Glovo Has Continued Investing Despite a Difficult Market

Glovo's latest numbers suggest that the company is not treating Nigeria as a short-term experiment.

Since launching in 2021, the company says it has invested more than ₦54 billion in the market and completed more than 40 million deliveries.

It also says it spent ₦8.5 billion in 2025 alone.

That is significant in a market where international technology companies have faced difficult decisions around foreign exchange, profitability and operating costs.

The investment also indicates why the leadership transition matters.

Glovo is no longer simply testing whether Nigerians will order food through an app.

It has built a sizeable marketplace and is now trying to determine how much more commerce it can move online.

Reni Onafeko Takes Over

The person stepping into the role is already familiar with the business.

Reni Onafeko previously worked in Glovo Nigeria's growth organisation and has been involved in the company's commercial and marketplace strategy.

Her public activity as the current General Manager shows that the next phase is likely to continue focusing heavily on growth, partnerships and expansion.

Onafeko has described Nigeria as one of the continent's biggest untapped digital-commerce opportunities, pointing to the relatively small share of consumer spending that currently happens online.

She has also said Glovo's ambition is to build the largest marketplace in every city where it operates.

That points toward a strategy centred not simply on increasing delivery orders, but on increasing the number of categories, merchants and consumers connected through the platform.

What Comes Next for Glovo Nigeria?

The next challenge may be harder than the previous one.

Glovo has demonstrated that Nigerians will use digital platforms for food and increasingly for other categories.

Now it has to make that behaviour sustainable.

The company must balance growth with the realities of Nigeria's operating environment.

That means managing delivery costs, maintaining competitive prices for consumers, generating sustainable economics for merchants and riders, and continuing to invest in technology and logistics infrastructure.

It also faces increasing competition from other food-delivery, quick-commerce and logistics platforms competing for the same consumers, merchants and couriers.

The winner in this market may ultimately be determined less by who can deliver a meal fastest and more by who can build the most useful everyday commerce infrastructure.

Lamide Akinola's departure comes at an interesting point in Glovo Nigeria's evolution.

During her tenure, the company moved further away from being viewed simply as a food-delivery app and toward becoming a broader digital marketplace for restaurants, groceries, pharmacies and retailers.

Glovo's reported ₦54 billion investment and 40 million-plus deliveries show how substantial its Nigerian operation has become.

But scale alone will not determine what happens next.

The real question for Reni Onafeko's leadership will be whether Glovo can turn that scale into a sustainable commerce ecosystem — one that creates value for consumers while remaining viable for merchants and riders.

Nigeria remains a difficult market to operate in, but it is also a market where millions of consumers and thousands of businesses still have room to move more of their everyday commerce online.

That is the opportunity Glovo is now trying to capture.

And the next chapter will determine whether the company's growth in Nigeria becomes simply a successful delivery story — or the foundation for something much bigger in African digital commerce.