Peter Njonjo quits Twiga Meals board after resigning as CEO

Twiga Meals Chief Government Officer Peter Njonjo in the course of the interview at Zen Backyard in Nairobi on August 23, 2023. PHOTO | LUCY WANJIRU | NMG

Twiga Meals founder and long-serving CEO Peter Njonjo has give up the agency’s board a month after he resigned as its chief government in a dramatic exit after a decade on the helm of considered one of Kenya’s largest agritech corporations.

His exit now fingers full management of the corporate, which has grown into a significant home items wholesaler and meals distributor for retail retailers in Nairobi and its environs, to overseas shareholders.

It comes at a time when Twiga has come out of a protracted chain of operational headwinds, starting from workers layoffs to deferred funds owed to suppliers, in addition to delayed salaries for staff, which noticed it announce a 40 % lower on its headcount final 12 months.

Twiga first made public the exit of Mr Njonjo on December 14 when it introduced that its long-serving CEO had taken a six-month go away simply after he steered it to shut a brand new spherical of funding estimated to the tune of $35 million (Sh5.5 billion), including onto the $160 million (Sh25.1 billion at present alternate charges) cumulative capital raised since inception.

Within the announcement, Mr Njonjo stated on the request of the board he would keep on for a six-month transition to permit the corporate time to recruit a substantive CEO.

Learn: Twiga CEO takes six months go away after new funding spherical

Terse resignation

However in a contemporary twist, the Enterprise Every day has established that Mr Njonjo lower quick his sabbatical and shook the board with a terse resignation letter through which he says, after deep reflection, he thinks “there may be little worth he can add to its present transition”, pointing to a possible fallout on the firm.

“On the request of the board after my resignation, I agreed to remain on the Twiga Board and work by means of a six-month transition that allowed for the recruitment of a brand new CEO. At the moment, the strategic path and day by day operations are actually firmly within the fingers of Juven and Creadev and there may be little worth I can add from this level on,” Mr Njonjo says within the resignation letter dated January 4, 2024. “On this regard, I wish to resign as a Director of Twiga Holdings. As a Founder, I’ll stay a dedicated shareholder of Twiga.”

The letter is addressed to Mr Hein Pretorius, the Twiga Holdings board chairman, and copied to dozens of Twiga shareholders.

Reached for touch upon the event, Mr Njonjo stated he had opted to transition from a chief government to a shareholder to permit the corporate pursue its subsequent part of development after a profitable fundraising through which he was additionally a high investor.

“I’ve sturdy religion within the present board and the administration workforce, and I’ve determined that at this level within the firm’s journey, I might need to play the position of a supportive shareholder,” Mr Njonjo advised the Enterprise Every day in a textual content message as he dismissed claims that there was a boardroom coup on the firm he based.

Learn: BOSS TALK: Twiga Meals boss on why the corporate has to chop 30pc of its workforce

On why he would put money into an organization and resign from its board, Mr Njonjo stated he was different alternatives that will devour a number of his time.

“I based the corporate, so I’ll at all times have a robust curiosity within the success of the enterprise. Twiga simply closed a big spherical of financing, which I additionally invested in, and paired with its vital institutional functionality, this places the organisation in a really sturdy place. This additionally permits me to concentrate on different alternatives that may devour a big quantity of my time within the quick to medium time period,” he stated.

Strategic development

After he give up as CEO, the corporate tasked its chief working officer Laurent Gouault and chief monetary officer Zuber Momoniat with heading operational and industrial, and finance and authorized capabilities respectively.

Mr Njonjo says he marked a 10-year milestone since he began Twiga in November 2013.

“Throughout this time, there was loads that we did proper in our journey to make an affect on meals safety and there are additionally a couple of issues we obtained improper, however, throughout that point, Twiga made a mark, each regionally and globally,” he says within the resignation letter.

Developments within the international macro scene within the first quarter of 2022 impacted the agency’s enlargement plans, he defined.

Learn: Twiga tycoon Peter Njonjo transfers Ruto’s 20,000-acre deal to non-public firm

“It took some time to get everybody on the identical web page when it comes to the place the corporate ought to head, however I’m glad that the technique work I led, in shut collaboration with the important thing shareholders and the Boston Consulting Group did result in a method that all of us felt recognised what had labored and what had not labored and what we wanted to do to construct a profitable and sustainable enterprise.”

Mr Njonjo says his technique led to the newest spherical of funding the corporate closed in November final 12 months.

“This additionally highlighted my dedication to the enterprise, by being the third largest investor, after Creadev and Juven. It was in opposition to this backdrop that I made a decision to resign as CEO and Board member, on the seventh of December 2023, as a result of now the Firm was in a robust place, and we had revamped the aptitude of the administration workforce.”

Mr Njonjo says as a founder he invested $1 million (Sh157 million) in August 2023 and has dedicated to pump in an identical quantity in coming weeks if the corporate attains sure objectives.

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