He Walked Away from a Global Presidency to Fix the Way Africa Eats

For over two decades, Peter Njonjo lived the corporate dream. He rose through the ranks of The Coca-Cola Company to become the President of the West and Central Africa Business Unit, overseeing operations across 33 countries. He was a master of "route-to-market" strategies, ensuring that a bottle of soda could reach the remotest village with clinical efficiency. But as he looked out of his office window in Lagos or Nairobi, a troubling irony struck him. While a chilled Coke was available almost anywhere for a predictable price, basic food items like bananas, onions, and tomatoes were not. In African cities, food is often twice as expensive as it should be, simply because the journey from the farm to the kitchen table is broken.

The catalyst for change came from a spectacular failure. In 2014, while still at Coca-Cola, Peter and his co-founder Grant Brooke attempted to export Kenyan bananas to the Middle East. Despite having buyers lined up, they couldn't ship a single container. The local supply chain was too fragmented; there was no record-keeping, no traceability, and no consistency in quality. Rather than giving up, Peter had an "aha" moment. If they couldn't export the bananas, they would sell them locally. They loaded the fruit into car boots and sold it to informal vendors in Nairobi. To their surprise, the stock cleared instantly at a profit. This was the birth of Twiga Foods.

Peter eventually made the radical decision to leave his prestigious global role in 2019 to lead Twiga as CEO. He realised that in Nairobi alone, 180,000 small "mama mboga" kiosks were feeding millions of people, but these vendors had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. to haggle at chaotic wholesale markets. Twiga changed the game by building a digital bridge. Through a simple mobile app, vendors could order fresh produce and dry goods to be delivered directly to their shops within 24 hours. By cutting out multiple layers of "middlemen" and investing in cold storage, Peter helped reduce post-harvest losses from a staggering 30% to just 4%.

Building this bridge required more than just an app; it required massive physical infrastructure. In a 2022 interview with the YPO, Peter explained that, unlike Western e-commerce giants who build on top of existing logistics, African innovators often have to build the roads and warehouses themselves. Twiga eventually opened a 200,000-square-foot automated distribution centre in Nairobi, the largest of its kind in East Africa. This allowed them to handle over 6,000 tons of produce daily, ensuring that the "mama mboga" got better quality at lower prices, which in turn helped lower the cost of living for everyday Kenyans.

The journey hasn't been without its storms. Navigating the "funding winter" and the shifting economic tides of 2023 required Peter to make tough calls on restructuring the business to ensure long-term sustainability. In early 2024, after a decade of intense building, Peter stepped down as CEO to focus on his next audacious vision: the Selu Group. This new venture aims to modernise African farming at scale, moving beyond just distribution to solving the "production" side of the food equation.

Peter Njonjo remains a firm believer that Africa's economic transformation begins with food security. He argues that when Africans stop spending 50% of their income on food, they will finally have the capital to invest in education, health, and technology. His story is a powerful testament to the impact of "reverse brain drain", where a seasoned executive brings global expertise back home to fix the most fundamental problems of the local soil.

Lessons for Budding Makers

Peter Njonjo’s transition from corporate leader to startup founder offers deep insights for modern makers:

1. Embrace Your Failures as Market Research: The failed banana export business was not a dead end; it was the most accurate piece of market data Peter ever received. If your first idea fails, look closely at why it failed—the friction you encountered is likely the real business opportunity.
2. Infrastructure is Part of the Innovation: In many African markets, you cannot just build the software; you often have to build the physical ecosystem (warehouses, delivery networks, training) to make the software useful. Don't be afraid of the "unsexy" work of logistics if it's the only way to deliver your value.