COLA WARS! East Africa’s Richest Man Sparks Panic at Coca-Cola & Pepsi With Sh189bn Soft Drinks Invasion in Uganda, Kenya
Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji is turning up the heat on global soda giants The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo with a massive $50 million (approximately UGX 189.4 billion) soft drinks manufacturing plant targeting East Africa’s booming market with dirt-cheap beverages.
The East African tycoon, popularly known as “Mo,” is preparing a mega manufacturing facility in the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa through his giant conglomerate MeTL Group as he aggressively expands his beverage empire across the region.
The planned plant will manufacture MeTL’s flagship beverages including Mo Cola, Mo Xtra and Mo Malto — brands that have already shaken up Tanzania’s consumer market with ultra-low prices that undercut rivals.
And that is exactly where panic is brewing for the multinational soda kings.
MeTL plans to sell 300-millilitre bottles of Mo Cola at only 15 Kenyan shillings (approximately UGX 500), dramatically lower than competing products from The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo that retail at around Kenyan 40 shillings (approximately UGX 1000+).
Industry players say the aggressive pricing could trigger a brutal price war in East Africa’s beverage market as millions of price-sensitive consumers rush toward cheaper alternatives.
Speaking after attending the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Mohammed Dewji revealed that the Mombasa project is already in advanced planning stages and construction could begin within the next 12 months.
“I’m setting up a plant in Uganda, and I now have land in Mombasa. I’m also looking into establishing a carbonated soft drinks plant,” Dewji said.
“Although we are still at the planning stage, we believe there is a strong possibility of starting construction within a year,” he added.
The billionaire businessman has built the Mo Cola empire around affordability and mass-market appeal, targeting ordinary consumers often priced out of multinational beverage brands.
Known across East Africa simply as “Mo,” Mohammed Dewji built his fortune through businesses spanning palm oil, rope manufacturing, consumer goods and beverages.
The former Tanzanian lawmaker also owns Tanzanian football giants Simba SC and transformed MeTL Group into East Africa’s largest indigenous conglomerate with operations in manufacturing, agriculture, logistics and consumer products.
According to Forbes, Dewji’s fortune is estimated at around $2.1 billion.
The Mombasa investment is part of MeTL’s aggressive expansion across East and Southern Africa, including plans for a manufacturing facility in Uganda and expanded distribution networks in Rwanda, Zambia and Mozambique.
Already, MeTL beverage products including Mo Cola and Mo Xtra are being sold in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, showing the company’s rapidly growing regional footprint.
The investment is also fueling Mombasa’s growing reputation as a magnet for African billionaires and industrial heavyweights eyeing East Africa’s rapidly expanding consumer market.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote recently revealed he is considering Mombasa as the preferred location for a proposed $15 billion-$17 billion East African oil refinery because of the city’s strategic deep-water port and access to regional markets.
Meanwhile, competition in Africa’s beverage industry is becoming fiercer by the day as both African billionaires and multinational corporations scramble to dominate a youthful and fast-growing population thirsty for affordable consumer products.
Even as The Coca-Cola Company pledged to invest about $1 billion in South Africa by 2030, and Pepsi bottling giant Varun Beverages expanded operations in Zimbabwe and South Africa, Dewji’s low-cost soda revolution is threatening to rewrite the rules of Africa’s cola wars.
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