First focus on establishing your business in your home country....
“Let people know your product in your home market – it has to have a home, it has to be from somewhere – before you start spreading yourself too thin [by] exporting... There are all these nuances once you get your product outside of your country that you might not be able to control. I think build a strong successful brand, a strong successful distribution network, build supply chains which you understand in your country."
- Monica Musonda is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Java Foods, a food processing company based in Zambia. Monica's vision is to revolutionize the eating habits of the youth market by offering them affordable and nutritious food options made from local products. Monica is a dual-qualified English solicitor and Zambian advocate with over 15 years of experience in legal practice and corporate management, including being corporate counsel at the International Finance Corporation and for Aliko Dangote of Dangote Industries Limited. Monica currently serves on the Boards of the Central Bank of Zambia and Dangote Industries Zambia Limited, and is Chairperson of Kwacha Pension Trust Fund, Zambia's largest single employer pension fund. She is a 2013 Young Global Leader (World Economic Forum) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow. Forbes Magazine and Africa Investor named her as one of the leading Young Power Women in Business in Africa in 2013 and 2014 respectively.