The “Banana” Company: How Twiga Made the "Impossible" Repeatable

The Trajectory Africa

On this episode of The Trajectory Africa, Kikonde Mwatela, former COO of Twiga, talks about how it tackled a fundamental problem in Kenya's banana supply chain—turning days of trapped working capital and high spoilage into ready-to-sell product. He also shares how Twiga balanced standardizing production while growing its retail universe, the critical relationship between revenue assurance and distribution costs, and perhaps most importantly, the right lessons to learn from Twiga's journey.

00:00 - Introduction to Twiga

01:41 - A first principle for building a profitable digital commerce business in Africa

16:00 - A primer on banana (and pineapple) value chains in Kenya
32:22 - Twiga’s cost structure

45:10 - Value chain power dynamics

53:54 - Twiga's growth strategy

1:06:38 - Key assumptions revisited

1:19:50 - The impact of commercial investors
1:32:33 - The “right” lessons to learn from Twiga’s story

Recommendations:

• Twiga Foods: Revolutionizing African Retail. Harvard Business School Case on Twiga Foods.
• Chasing Outliers. Why Context Matters for Early Stage Investing in Africa. A report I co-authored on VC investing in Africa.

Connect on social media:

• Kikonde Mwatela on LinkedIn and @KikondeMwatela on X
• The Trajectory Africa on LinkedIn and @trajectoryafrica.bsky.social on Bluesky
• Tayo Akinyemi on LinkedIn, X, and @TayoAkinyemi.bsky.social on Bluesky