Our guest is Peter Njonjo. Peter is Co-Founder and CEO of Twiga Foods. The company aggregates informal retail demand and organizes an efficient supply chain for fresh and dry goods through a tech-enabled B2B platform. Prior to that, Peter spent 21 years with The Coca-Cola Company. He was President of their West and Central Africa Business, covering 33 countries, and based in Lagos. He was also President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya, and Director of the American Business Council in Nigeria. A native of Kenya, he has been voted among the top 100 young leaders in Africa by Forbes Afrique, and “Top 40 under 40” by The Business Daily in Kenya. Peter holds an MBA and BSc from the United States International University in Kenya, and an Executive Leadership Program from Harvard Business School. About the host: Fadel Jaoui, an economist, started this podcast to celebrate African entrepreneurial success stories, to hear the originals and changemakers behind them, and to draw lessons to inspire many more stories across the continent. This virtuous cycle is fundamental to pool talent and investments, and ultimately create startup “unicorns” that would benefit Africa’s prosperity. Fadel is a strong advocate of entrepreneurial ecosystem building and private sector development as true engines of sustainable economic growth. And he is a firm believer in leveraging innovation and technology to leapfrog development constraints and scale up social and economic impact. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Oxford University, as well as degrees from Columbia University and the London School of Economics. He started his career in investment banking in London, and has held various positions in International Financial Institutions (views are his own).
Fadel Jaoui:
Hi everyone, our guest today is Peter Njonjo. Peter is Co-Founder and CEO of Twiga Foods. The company aggregates informal retail demand and organizes an efficient supply chain for fresh and dry goods through a tech-enabled B2B platform. Prior to that, Peter spent 21 years with The Coca-Cola Company. He was President of their West and Central Africa Business, covering 33 countries, and based in Lagos. He was also President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Kenya, and Director of the American Business Council in Nigeria. A native of Kenya, he has been voted among the top 100 young leaders in Africa by Forbes Afrique, and “Top 40 under 40” by The Business Daily in Kenya. Peter holds an MBA and BSc from the United States International University in Kenya, and an Executive Leadership Program from Harvard Business School. Peter, welcome to the show. It's a pleasure to have you with us today.
Peter Njonjo:
Thank you so much, Fadel. And it's a pleasure to be on your show.
Fadel Jaoui:
Excellent. Excellent. I cannot wait for our conversation. So let's start from the very beginning, and I'll start with an interesting anecdote that I found out about while researching your company. And I believe it was a pivotal moment. Tell us about the time when you and your co-founder decided to sell bananas from Kenya in Dubai.
Peter Njonjo:
No, thank you so much, Fadel. I think for many agri-based companies on the continent, everybody thinks about the export opportunity. And that's essentially where we started and we felt that, you know what? There's a huge world out there when it comes to exports. And when we looked at the banana market globally, we felt that there was essentially an opportunity for us to cut a niche for ourselves and start supplying into the market. So we headed out to Dubai, and we felt that it was going to be fairly straightforward. Go in there, pitch and walk away with a huge order, and that's exactly what happened.
Peter Njonjo:
So we went and actually pitched to a larger exporter or importer of bananas in Dubai. We left there and what they told us is, "Look, you guys are here at the right time. And if you can give us one container of good bananas, we're going to give you an order of 50 containers a month." And of course that for us was very, very exciting. So we came back to Nairobi all excited, and we thought we're just going to put a large sign outside saying we're buying bananas and start filling up the containers. The realization of the problems that plague agriculture in Africa started hitting us. We realized that there's not traceability.
Peter Njonjo:
People don't know the varieties that they grow, very little record keeping. And there was really no traceability. It soon dawned on us that we will not be able to export a single banana. And that's when we started looking at the Kenyan opportunity to figure out we've spent all this time and energy trying to export bananas, how about we sell some bananas locally. And that's what really helped us pivot our model to focusing on the local market.
Fadel Jaoui:
Interesting. So essentially, there's also international standards I assume when you come to export. And so these are one of the things that you had to figure out. But then at the same time, you realize that there is a demand in Kenya in the first place. So there's no need to think of exports first, but to focus internally.
Peter Njonjo:
Yeah, because if you look at exporting globally, there needs to be proper traceability, proper record keeping from an agronomy standpoint and all those did not exist. So even from a phytosanitary standpoint, we would not be able to export. So starting from that point, the whole idea then was, can we identify inefficiencies locally and then see whether that would be a good opportunity for us to then start? And that's when we started looking at the banana market locally, the extent of a fragmentation of the value chains, the inefficiency of production, and just the whole inefficiency of the food sector where today consumers across Africa are spending about 50% of their disposable income on food. To give you context, that's what consumers in the U.S. was spending in the 1870s. Today, that number is 10% and that explains why the Western economies are very vibrant because 90% of disposable income is going to saving and other sectors. In Africa, once you have 50% going into food, then the rest is going into very, very basic things. Health, transportation, and medication and that's it.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah. Yeah. Going back to you now, how easy was it for you to move from the beverages business to agriculture, and to this new endeavor? I mean these are completely different beasts.
Peter Njonjo:
Yeah. So having spent 21 years with the Coca-Cola company, I was doing very, very well. Within the company as president for Western Central Africa. And I had a very, very promising career path laid out ahead of me in the company. And sometime early last year, that was 2019, I was more or less faced with a crossroad. So on one path, I could continue with the Coca-Cola company and see where that road lead me. And essentially that's something I knew very well. But on the other hand is this company I started six years ago, where my co-founder at the time was starting to not enjoy his role because the company had grown, and was no longer the little entrepreneurship experiment that we had.
Peter Njonjo:
And now we had people relying on the business. We had shareholders, we had different stakeholders and that really wasn't his cup of tea. If I stayed on with the Coca-Cola company, I would lose out on Twiga or I would lose Twiga the company because then now it would not have the right level of leadership to take it to its next level of growth. So it was a tough choice, and I made a choice to go with Twiga because it's something that also spoke to my values and who I wanted to be, and the legacy I wanted to leave in my life.
Fadel Jaoui:
So this is like the deep, personal motivation you had to move on, because I was going to ask you how can you just leave a comfortable career as you said of 21 years and just jump off the bandwagon, and get into entrepreneurship. Was there a family history of entrepreneurship as well, or not at all? Were you the first one essentially?
Peter Njonjo:
Not per se. So if I look at my parents, they got into entrepreneurship, but very late. They had more or less had a very successful professional journey similar to what I had. So I think for me, what I always knew is that I wanted to be a creator. I wanted to build new things. I had the opportunity to do that, and I knew that it was a risk that I was taking. So one of the things I did was to then have a chat with my wife who's been very, very supportive through this journey. And more or less, just be very, very open to then say, "Hey, by the way, this is a very, very exciting path that we're taking, but there's also risk associated with it."
Peter Njonjo:
And if we appreciate the risk associated with it, I think we will go in with both our eyes open. And if we do that, then I think then we could build something very, very special. And the other thing also that I would say is that when you start a venture and you're not fully committed to it, there's always that piece at the back of your mind that there's really ... there's options. But in this instance, what I said is "Look, how much can I motivate myself if I were to remove that net?" If I knew that I don't have any other safety net apart from making this thing work, then how hard am I willing to push myself? How hard am I willing to push the boundaries? And that starts creating a very different level of motivation that we did not have before that.
Fadel Jaoui:
This is a bit like Jeff Bezos from Amazon, who said ... he imagines himself at the age of 80 and then looks back and wonders if he regrets, or if he would have regretted anything. And so that's what he would go for. So I guess this is a bit similar to your way of thinking.
Peter Njonjo:
If I looked at it back, maybe I went to Coke, I stayed with Coca-Cola. Went to North America, had a brilliant career. If I look back and I saw that a company like Twiga did not flourish and we did not have the impact that we set out to have as a business, I will feel that I would not have lived to my true potential.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, for sure.
Peter Njonjo:
And I think that for me is what then becomes a very strong motivation for everything that I do every day.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, for sure. But then, where's the name Twiga coming from in the first place?
Peter Njonjo:
Twiga means giraffe in Swahili.
Fadel Jaoui:
Okay. Very simple.
Peter Njonjo:
Very, very simple. And actually there wasn't any research or any thoughtful process around it. My co-founder is American, his name is Grant. Initially when we started out the company, the company was called Neo Kenya, which was a bit of a mouthful. And Grant said, "You know what? How about we use a giraffe as a logo for the business?" And essentially, the company was called Twiga Fruits or the brand was called Twiga Fruits because we only dealt with fruits. It changed to Twiga Foods, because we started dealing with foods other than fruits. And we're just twiga.com where we're trying now to sell everything there is in grocery and fresh.
Fadel Jaoui:
So soon it will be called Twiga everything, a bit like Amazon then.
Peter Njonjo:
Yeah. Let's call it twiga.com and we're happy with that.
Fadel Jaoui:
Exactly. So then tell us a bit more about the company as it is today. What it does, how it's structured.
Peter Njonjo:
So today we see ourselves more of a B2B E-commerce company. And the reason why we are B2B is because we feel that that's where there's a single biggest opportunity to then create transformation as far as retail is concerned on the continent. So just to give you an example, if you look at the Western markets, give and take, the top 15 retailers control maybe about 80% of retail. If you look at Nairobi, maybe about six million people. There's about 180,000 retailers. So when you think about the Western type of a retail structure, it then lends itself to a lot of efficiency and low pricing.
Peter Njonjo:
But if you look at the fragmentation that you have in the African continent, because of the fragmentation of retail due to the informality, the inefficiency is so high. So we feel that having a B2B model that is an E-commerce model, then that then has the greatest impact in terms of bringing efficiency into retail. And that's essentially what makes business like ourselves exist. So that's what we do. We have two big divisions within the business. The first is the fresh division, which is essentially fresh fruit and vegetables. That's where we started. That's our heritage. And now we've added grocery.
Peter Njonjo:
So we're starting to look at everything else that the informal retail needs in terms of meeting its requirements, because we want to be the one-stop shop for informal retail. So that's how we're structured as a business today. We've grown to about 1,000 employees. Half of that is permanent, the other half is contractual or casuals. We have about 60,000 customers in our system. We've now started expanding across the whole country. Of course, with COVID that slowed down our international expansion. So we've really focused on expanding within Kenya.
Peter Njonjo:
By the end of February next year, we will be in eight Kenyan cities in total. And that should essentially give us a lead position in terms of being a B2B commerce player. And that essentially should then start driving our international expansion. So that's essentially who we are today, and how we're structured.
Fadel Jaoui:
But I think it's important to emphasize as well that technology is a big part of your business, and hence my following up question which is what has been your experience of convincing suppliers and retailers to change their habits and move to digital? Has there been a lot of resistance there?
Peter Njonjo:
So I just want to give you an example, and this is from last week, which I think should give an idea of maybe the type of transformation that we're driving. We launched in this new city called Kisumu, which is in the Western part of Kenya. Within Kisumu, let's say the core urban Kisumu is about 2,000 retailers, right?
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah.
Peter Njonjo:
Within the first 60 hours of operation, say 72 hours of operation about three days, basically we had 10% of those customers already converted to Twiga and using the app. So the thing is that the value proposition that we give to the retailers is yes, it's a new way of working, but think about the convenience. You sit down in your shop, you’re looking for whatever it is that you want. You can see the picture, you select that. And the very next day, it comes to you. And for many retailers out there, it's like magic.
Fadel Jaoui:
It’s you guys who actually deliver the goods all the way to the vendors, correct?
Peter Njonjo:
Yes, we do the same. So because we need to control the experience. So when you think about it, the friction to commerce that you remove using technology makes the conversion that much easier. And I think the other key thing of course is price because of the efficiency that we generate, we then pass on the benefits of price to the retail. And because of that, these are very strong incentive for the retailers to then come on board and to keep on ordering. Having launched last week, I now can see customers in the database who are ordering daily from us.
Fadel Jaoui:
That quickly. So it is being adopted very quickly. So all that potential counter argument of resistance is completely gone in this case. And Twiga I guess, is proof of it especially we wonder that in Africa there's a low penetration of internet, low penetration of telecom infrastructure. But it doesn't seem that it's affecting the business, or is it?
Peter Njonjo:
Now the thing that the other misconception that is there is that there's a low penetration of telecom infrastructure. So when I look at a market like Kenya, the whole country is 4G.
Fadel Jaoui:
I see.
Peter Njonjo:
And because the telco companies have older 3G, 2G infrastructure, which is very expensive to run, what they're now doing is providing incentives through 4G enabled handsets to transition people away from 2G, 3G to 4G. So now for example, in Kenya, the leading telcom company, Safaricom, has an offer where as somebody on a 2G or 3G device you can get a 4G device for the price of 20 U.S. cents a day.
Fadel Jaoui:
Wow. That's very cheap.
Peter Njonjo:
Exactly. So because of that, you will have most of the market starting to transition. And of course, if everybody has a 4G enabled device on their hands, that's a huge opportunity for companies like ourselves.
Fadel Jaoui:
For sure.
Peter Njonjo:
Because now in the new city that we just launched last week, 90% of customers we surveyed, potential customers we surveyed had 4G enabled handsets.
Fadel Jaoui:
That's the telecom side. I mean this is the internet infrastructure side, but is there an issue from the other more physical infrastructure because that's a big issue in Africa more generally. Is that challenging your business operations, I mean logistically or not at all?
Peter Njonjo:
Well, I think the key thing is that we focus on urban areas. So in terms of our distribution. And of course, we know that Africa, the rate of urbanization is very high. That's about 4.2%. That's like two X Asia, which is sitting at about 2.2. Now if the rate of urbanization is growing much, much faster than infrastructure, then a product of that is traffic. And out here in Africa, that's like part of our lives.
Fadel Jaoui:
Of course.
Peter Njonjo:
So the thing is now, what we are then now doing is leveraging technology to really start optimizing our logistics, to manage the traffic situation. So right now if I look at some of the tools that we've built, our first case of machine learning is on our logistics optimization. We're now able to look at traffic, we’re able to look at the state of the roads. The clustering of the orders that we're receiving from customers, the weight, the volume of those orders. And then really optimizing our logistics in how we can achieve the lowest cost of operation. And because of that and leveraging technology, then that starts helping you overcome some of these more traditional challenges.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, but I want to emphasize as well that you are using technology, you are using a platform connecting the two sides of the market. But you are not just an Uber for agriculture. I mean your hands are much dirtier into the business and in the supply chain, because from what I understand and correct me if I'm wrong. But you're also involved in harvesting, you're involved in storage and delivering.
Peter Njonjo:
Yeah. The thing is that one of the things that you're doing in this type of environment is sometimes, and this is a challenge for companies in Africa. As an entrepreneur, you have a dual challenge as opposed to other markets. The dual challenge here is you need to build the intellectual property to commercialize the innovation, or solve the problem that you set out to solve. While at the same time, you need to create an ecosystem that will support your business because that ecosystem does not exist.
Peter Njonjo:
So for example, we did not have commercial farmers focused on the local market. Everything was smallholder farmer driven. Today, we have about 14,000 acres of contracted land to Twiga, and that number will get to 20,000 acres end of the year. This is commercial farmers that were not there before, or commercial farmers who were not even farming for the local market before. That's an ecosystem we had to build to support our fresh business.
Fadel Jaoui:
Interesting, interesting. You're literally creating parts of the ecosystem from scratch.
Peter Njonjo:
You have to. When we started out, we couldn't lease assets to support our logistics. We started by buying trucks. Half of our trucks today are company owned trucks. Now because we've hit a certain threshold, we're able to leverage logistics marketplaces to access logistics assets, to support our last mile distribution or our inbound logistics. So again, these are things that we go developing. Now of course, as we start expanding into other markets, we don't need to build that from scratch because we've built partnerships, we've built a name for ourselves. And we've built the ecosystem.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, so basically now that you have the infrastructure you built as well the supply chain, you can add over it extra layers of other products and other markets. Correct?
Peter Njonjo:
Exactly, and that's why we started moving from fresh produce into the broader grocery range, because your vehicle is going to the same customer. And the same customer is asking, "If you're going to bring me this, why not bring me this and this and this and this?" And the list keeps on growing. And you're like, "Okay, who are we kidding? Let's just provide everything."
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I understand. So I want to talk a bit more about you now, and your role in the context of a fast-growing company. So the typical image of the entrepreneur that we have is this 20 something tech graduates with a hoodie, starting from a garage. But the average entrepreneur is in fact above their 30s with corporate experience. So how has your experience at a firm like Coca-Cola served you if at all, in creating and building Twiga?
Peter Njonjo:
I would say that, and I will give you a couple of facets. The first thing was around access to capital. So when we started Twiga six years ago, I basically financed the whole operation.
Fadel Jaoui:
Wow.
Peter Njonjo:
And actually to the point where my wife and I, we sold our matrimonial home to finance the business.
Fadel Jaoui:
Now that's a sacrifice.
Peter Njonjo:
So the key thing is that because we really believed in the idea, but you see the thing is that because I already had a career in the company ... with Coca Cola, I had some assets I had accumulated that I could dispose to finance the business. One of the biggest challenges that you have for entrepreneurs in Africa is startup capital. The second thing that I would say was critical for me, was understanding how to manage large teams. And understanding to reduce what I call the strategic divergence of strategy and operations.
Peter Njonjo:
That means that as the organization grows, is what you're saying in the boardroom what the company is actually doing on the streets? And how do you then reduce that dichotomy over time? And that comes from being able to manage large teams, being able to manage processes, systems, that allow you to reduce that dichotomy between strategy and operations.
Fadel Jaoui:
So a related question is what does a typical workday of a growth startup CEO look like really, given what you were just telling me right now?
Peter Njonjo:
So the first thing is that my day starts at seven o'clock. That's my first meeting. So the thing is that the team starts at 6:30, where they review the performance of fresh the day before. 7:00 to 7:30 I review the performance of grocery the day before together with fresh. Between 7:30 and 8:30 I review any high impact projects that we have running. They're not more than two. So each project, half an hour. And it's a skip level session where the teams on the ground and myself, and all the direct reports are on the call and we're able to quickly review the performance.
Peter Njonjo:
It's rapid fire, half an hour. And then from there, I basically then get into the rest of the sessions that we have. Every week I have a one-on-one with all my direct reports. It's not about what I want to get out of that meeting, because it's not a performance session. But I want to support them. So what I tell them is, "I'm giving you an hour of my time. What do you want with this one hour?" We do that every week. Twice a week I spend time with customers in the market. I want to understand, why did you make the decision that you made? Why are you buying this product and not this? And I get to spend that whole two days with the team.
Peter Njonjo:
And sometimes I actually ride on a sales truck with the sales people, just to get to understand what are the challenges that they're facing, and how are the decisions that we're making impacting how they're working on the ground. And I try to do that as often as I can, because as a company grows, the risk of being detached from reality is very high.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, yeah. The bigger it gets, because you're now 1,000 people as you just said. And that's just in a few years, in six years. So it's easy to become detached, and start living in this ivory tower.
Peter Njonjo:
Exactly. And the thing is that we double the business in revenue every four to five months. So when you're growing at that pace, you really need to stay connected to what's happening on the ground. What's happening with customers. And that allows us to then make very, very relevant decisions. I mean tomorrow I'm in the market and I'm joining the sales team for a 4:00 AM sales run, because some of our customers open that early. And I want to see some of the challenges that the team is facing. So if I'm making decisions on Friday, those decisions will be informed and will hit the right problem where that problem needs to be addressed.
Peter Njonjo:
And then of course, I also look at my shareholders. So I also, every month I have one-on-one with all my major shareholders. Just getting to share with them what's happening, and then also them getting to share with me what's on their mind. And that's outside of a board meeting. So this is just like stakeholder engagement, just one-on-one. And then of course, I have time also for government. I deal with a lot of regulatory stuff across the markets. And then of course, I'm also thinking about strategy. Where are we going? Where do we need to be in the next three years, five years? And having a running team that's working on that. So that I would say the big blocks of my time, and how I get to spend my time.
Fadel Jaoui:
The real question, because you're starting your meetings at 7:00 AM, is when do you wake up?
Peter Njonjo:
So normally I wake up at about 5:30, then I do a 45-minute jog.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, I was going to ask you about the morning routine. This is a typical question you would ask somebody at the level of CEO and managing companies like this. So you have your morning routine, exercising is a big deal as well, from what I understand.
Peter Njonjo:
Yeah, because the thing is that what I find is if I'm going to stand my day be effective, I need to be crisp. And what I like is running either listening to an audiobook or listening to my favorite music just gets me in the right frame of mind, getting them to start the day.
Fadel Jaoui:
No, for sure. And you mentioned earlier, you were talking on a regular basis to your shareholders. And so relatedly, you raised ... well, the company raised last year, $30 million from a round led by Goldman Sachs and other top investors. So from a day to another, you find yourself with this amount of money for the company. How do you adapt as a CEO to this new phase, and how do you inspire your teams to move to the next level?
Peter Njonjo:
So the thing is that I mean, we just celebrated it for a day. Okay, now we need to change this. We need to change this. So I think the key thing is that it's really focusing the whole team to then say, "Forget about all that." That for us is, because when you raise capital, yes, it's a great milestone. But what that even means is that now you raise that capital on the promise of results that you're delivering the future. So the question is, are you living to that promise, because then if you're living to that promise, it then allows you then to raise more capital to even drive further growth. So for me, raising capital, yes, it's important that now the company is well-funded. But we need to constantly feel the pressure to deliver results, so that everybody is thinking about what do I need to deliver today?
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah. Well, relatedly, Peter, is the current crisis situation. And I assume companies like you need to think even more about making sure that they deliver on their results. So how has COVID-19 impacted the business in the past month, and your sector more generally?
Peter Njonjo:
I think the key thing for us is basically, Kenya reported its ... not basically. I mean factually, Kenya reported its first case on the 13th of March. And basically on the 26th, the country started shutting down. And April was a first month where we really, really got hit by COVID. And this was mainly due to restricted movement. And during that month, one of the things that I sat down was to then think of it from the perspective of we're dealing with food, and it's still a significant market out there. Of course, our existing operations will be impacted. And actually the month of April was a month where we actually declined.
Peter Njonjo:
We had a slight decline in our revenue. Within two weeks, we had developed a new framework of how we were going to operate in this COVID environment. And I'm happy to note that as of this month, we've basically doubled our business since April. And the key thing is that, and it's from four things that we focused on. The first thing was then to then say that look, our customers will continue facing strain due to this COVID environment. So how do we then give them products that allow them to survive through this period? How do we change our business to serve our customer, to actually focus relentlessly on customer market fit?
Peter Njonjo:
So that was the first one. The second one is you have all this manufacturers, you have all these farmers and they're struggling because now of all these changes. They don't know whether their supply chains will be disrupted. They will be able to sell the product that we're selling previously into their customer base. And what we said is that we want to be viewed as a preferred partner to that whole ecosystem. And we then focused our technology and the solutions that we offered, and we opened it up to this whole ecosystem. And then the third piece was to then say that, "Look, we need to give the retailers exceptional service." Which means that when they order from us, if we say we will deliver in 12 hours, let it be 12 hours.
Peter Njonjo:
And we started measuring ourselves relentlessly on KPIs, like on-time in full. When did I say I was going to deliver and when did I deliver? And right now our on-time in full score is at about 97%.
Fadel Jaoui:
So essentially customer experience first.
Peter Njonjo:
If we give them the market fit, then we have to deliver against the experience. And then of course, as all this changes, how do we then start leveraging scale and offering that as a benefit to our existing players? And those are the four things that we've relentlessly focused on, and they've borne fruit for us. So I would say that, yes, it's been a tough journey. A lot of long hours that we've had to put in, but it's allowed us to continue growing.
Fadel Jaoui:
In a sense it's making the company even more resilient than before.
Peter Njonjo:
Yes, it is. Yes, it is.
Fadel Jaoui:
So now looking ahead and on a more positive note, what grand plans do you have for the future of the company?
Peter Njonjo:
Two ways in which we're looking at growth. Growth across categories, that's definitely going to continue. And we will look at more and more retail categories that we can continue participating in, including servicing the hospitality channel. So again, there's going to be that lens of growth that we wear around the category lens. And I mean right now, for example, we're launching products in personal care, we're launching products in home care, and we'll continue expanding that. And then of course, there's the geographical lens in terms of growth. And when I look at the geographical lens in Kenya, we essentially have started to expand across different cities.
Peter Njonjo:
By February of next year, 1st of February, we will launch our ninth city in Kenya, which will be a significant milestone for us. So again, very, very rapid expansion across the country. And of course, immediately after that we will then look at launching in our first international city. And in the past, I had shared that we were looking at West Africa. And right now I'm pleased to say that those plans are back on track after COVID. Not after COVID, but I mean we are at the tail end of the easing of restrictions of movement of COVID on the continent. So that should get us again, thinking about expansion across the continent.
Peter Njonjo:
So again, being very, very positive about that. And I think net-net again, as I mentioned before, the opportunity that you see in Kenya has been played out across the continent. And I've had the opportunity of working with Coca Cola for six years. I was the head of the business. I was the general manager of a business on the East Coast of Africa. So led about six countries on the East Coast. And at the tail end of my career, I was president for Western Central Africa. So I was based out in Lagos, Nigeria, and I managed 33 countries out of Nigeria. So I have a fairly good understanding of the African continent.
Peter Njonjo:
Right now, looking at everything I think the West African piece of the continent looks very, very attractive based on what it is that we're doing in Kenya.
Fadel Jaoui:
Well, these are very exciting plans, Peter. So I just want to finish with a few final words from you. Is there a book or two that influenced your way of managing and leading, or even your life philosophy that you would recommend?
Peter Njonjo:
For entrepreneurs, the one book that really comes to mind is Shoe Dog, which is an autobiography of Phil Knight, the founder of Nike. And for me, the reason why this was a very, very inspirational book was because it talks about resilience. It talks about a vision. It talks about staying true to the vision, even in the midst of insurmountable challenges or seemingly insurmountable challenges. And when you put all that together, I think for me that was one book that was a really, really true inspiration. And of course, then there will be a multiple of books that talk about different business models, different ways to look at technology and implementation of technology.
Peter Njonjo:
And I think for me that was more or less incremental knowledge from where I was sitting. But I would say that the pivotal book for me was Shoe Dog, because the journey of entrepreneurship is a lonely journey. We might sit here and talk about all the great things that have happened, but within that journey was some dark days. Some days that were filled with uncertainty. Some days that were filled with self-doubt. Some days that were filled with just so many unanswered questions. And the thing is that you continue taking small risks, experimenting with different things, and then finding ways in which maybe you'd solve the problem.
Peter Njonjo:
And that subtotal of small decisions then led to the results that one can then come out and say, "Hey, by the way, look at what it is that we achieved." But it's not an easy journey, and it will never get easy even as you move along.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah, it's a long road between the beginnings, and nobody hears about the beginnings to the nice story on a glossy magazine.
Peter Njonjo:
Definitely.
Fadel Jaoui:
So I'll finish with a last question for you. What would you tell young people as they jump into similar journeys in Africa, and what does it really take to be successful?
Peter Njonjo:
First thing is that from an ecosystem standpoint, there's never been a greater time to be an entrepreneur on the continent, because we have big problems that require solutions. And those solutions can only be provided through technology. Whether you're talking about food with what Twiga is doing. Whether you're talking about healthcare, whether you're talking about education or transportation. So very, very exciting ecosystem. The two big challenges I would then say is that first is to think about ways in which one can access seed capital. I'm trying to figure out ways in which I can help the ecosystem provide assistance to upcoming entrepreneurs access seed capital, because I think that's a big barrier.
Peter Njonjo:
But the second thing is seek mentorship. Value in those who've walked that journey before. There is value in listening to professionals who've also been successful in their field, because then what it does is it stops you from repeating mistakes or learning from the journeys of others. You will walk through your own journey, but I find mentorship so invaluable. And even today, I seek mentorship. For example, I had a mentorship session with an ex Amazon executive, senior vice president like two weeks ago.
Fadel Jaoui:
Interesting.
Peter Njonjo:
And from all these, I learn a lot. So always seek knowledge from others who've walked that journey before you, because what you're doing yes, is unique. But it's not the first time it's being done in the world.
Fadel Jaoui:
Yeah. I mean mentorship, I think is hugely underestimated. So this is a great piece of advice, Peter. And that was a fantastic conversation. Thanks again, for being with us.
Peter Njonjo:
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Fadel Jaoui:
And to the audience listening, if you want to learn more about Twiga Foods, visit twiga.com. That's T-W-I-G-A.com. Thanks for listening, and until next time.
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