Twiga Foods, a Kenyan e-commerce platform, has revealed that its CEO, Peter Njonjo, is taking a leave of absence to concentrate on personal affairs following what he refers to as “an intense 2023.”
This development occurred just after Twiga Food was given four months by a Nairobi court to resolve its disagreement with cloud service provider Incentro Africa. Due to unpaid debt, Incentro Africa filed a lawsuit to force Twiga Foods into liquidation. Incentro is requesting payment of up to KES 39 million. On March 13, 2024, the court is scheduled to hear the case.
Twiga’s COO, Laurent Gouault, will oversee the business’s operations and commercial division while Mr. Njonjo is away, while CFO, Zuber Momoniat, will handle the company’s finance and legal departments.
The board has shared the announcement and stated that it supports Njonjo’s decision to take the six-month vacation. This occurred about two weeks after the B2B supply platform obtained fresh capital in an undisclosed amount from TLcom Capital Partners, DOB Equity, Juven, and Creadev.
“Following the successful capital raise, 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.” Hein Pretorius, Chairman of Twiga, said.
Peter Njonjo will continue to hold a board position.
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Details on the lawsuit
The most funded e-commerce platform in Kenya has four months to resolve a liquidation claim pertaining to unpaid debts in a dispute over a $3 million cloud services contract.
Twiga Foods, the most funded e-commerce platform in Kenya, and Incentro, a Google Cloud reseller, have been granted five months by a Kenyan court in Nairobi to settle their disagreement over Twiga’s debt to Incentro. According to Incentro, Twiga owes it $450,000 in delinquent bills and a postponed Google incentive. However, Twiga says it only has a $94,000 debt.
As the e-commerce company transitioned from rapid expansion to trying to turn a profit, Twiga allegedly fell behind on monthly payments on a three-year contract for cloud services, according to Incentro.
The matter was supposed to be heard by the court last week, but it was postponed until March 13, 2024 since both sides failed to meet the previous date. Incentro, a Google Cloud reseller, provided Twiga with a three-year contract worth $3 million that is at the centre of the controversy.
Twiga Foods 2023 recap
For Kenya’s most well-funded e-commerce company, 2023 has been a busy year filled with legal issues, past-due bills, financial shortages, and organisational reorganisation. In response to the challenging economic conditions, the company has implemented many sustainable measures. The goal is to become a “lean, agile, cost-efficient organization,” as the outgoing CEO describes it.
Mr. Njonjo has previously said that the 2023 “funding winter” is to blame for Twiga’s lack of or reduced funds. Fewer investment rounds and even fewer firms have received funding during the funding winter as foreign investors withhold their money. According to Mr. Njonjo, during a media roundtable in August, the company had to restructure as part of a goal to slash costs by forty percent.
Shortly after eliminating the internal salesforce team, the Agri-Tech company let go of 283 permanent employees in August, accounting for one-third of its workforce. Twiga Foods would choose to use multiple independent sales agents as a result of this modification to its sales model.