Peter Njonjo, the CEO of troubled e-commerce and food distribution firm Twiga Foods has taken a voluntary six-month sabbatical after an “an intense 2023” to focus on personal matters.
Twiga Food’s Chief Operating Officer Laurent Gouault will be in charge of the firm’s operational and commercial functions while Chief Financial Officer Zuber Momoniata will take the finance & legal functions of the company during the CEO’s sabbatical. Peter Njonjo will remain on the company’s board.
“I am proud of what we have built at Twiga and the impact that Twiga has had through job creation, the reduction of agricultural waste, and ultimately the reduction of food costs for our people. I have decided to take a break after an intense 2023 from my day-to-day role as CEO to focus on personal matters,” Njonjo said.
Twiga Foods recently raised an undisclosed funding from its existing investors Creadev, Juven, TLcom Capital Partners, and DOB Equity after weeks of back and forth tussles with Incentro Africa for a $261,878 debt. The cloud services vendor Incentro Africa sought to liquidate the firm but Njonjo obtained temporary orders blocking the plan.
Peter Njonjo has been at the firm since 2019 and the ten-year-old start-up added that it was in talks with Incentro to settle the debt and wont be liquidated as it had sent over 100 letters informing suppliers icluding Incentro Africa on its restructuring and refinancing terms and will clear all its long outstanding dues.
In August, Twiga Foods laid off a third of its staff after another round last year, a nearly 21 per cent workforce in a restructuring plan to slash costs by up to 40 per cent to achieve a lean, agile and cost-effective organization.
“The board supports Peter’s decision to take a sabbatical and has full confidence in the capabilities of Twiga’s recently bolstered senior leadership team. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I thank Peter for his demonstrated commitment in ensuring the completion of Twiga’s recent funding round, despite the personal sacrifices required. As the board, we are delighted with Twiga’s strong market position, and we look forward to working together with Peter on the business’s further growth and development going forward,” the company’s chairman, Hein Pretorius said.