Executive Change Signals Next Stage of Scale-Up for Kenya’s Twiga Foods

Nairobi-based Twiga Foods has announced that co-founder Peter Njonjo, previously the most senior regional executive at Coca-Cola Africa, will assume the role of Twiga’s new full-time CEO. Njonjo will rejoin his co-founder Grant Brooke, who will take on a new executive role in the company, one of the first to be selected by Endeavor Kenya.

Njonjo’s decision is a significant move in Africa, where executives have traditionally not been willing to leave the security of Fortune 500 corporations to join entrepreneurial businesses. As Twiga rapidly expands its proprietary mobile technology platform that links food producers with retail outlets, it is expected to benefit from Njonjo’s experience managing Coca Cola’s sophisticated distribution systems across 30+ countries in Africa.

“If my leadership was the period in which Twiga was proving a point that there’s a better way to build a safe and secure market for food distribution, Peter’s leadership will be about institutionalizing this way of doing business and scaling it,” said outgoing Brooke. “Starting new ventures is really my skill-set and passion, while proficiently running institutions is Peter’s skill set and passion. Twiga has an aggressive growth plan and this transition leverages on our respective expertise.”

Twiga Foods was selected by Endeavor at the 74^th International Selection Panel in September, 2017. The platform currently serves over 17,000 farmers in 20 countries across Africa. More recently the company has also added packaged consumer goods to its distribution network.  In addition to his role as a co-founder of Twiga and previous position at Coca Cola Africa, Njonjo has also served as a member of Endeavor Kenya’s board.