Lawyer turned entrepreneur, Monica Musonda is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Java Foods, a food processing company based in Zambia that she established to provide affordable nutrition to the southern African market. Java Foods seeks to revolutionize the eating habits of the youth market by offering them affordable and nutritious food options made from local products. Java Foods first product was “eeZee Instant Noodles”, which has become Zambia’s leading instant noodle brand. Java Foods now manufactures eeZee Supa Cereal (a fortified instant cereal/porridge for school feeding programmes & retail) & Num Num’s corn snacks. She is one of the few Zambian women involved in manufacturing and agro-processing.
Musonda is a dual-qualified English solicitor and Zambian advocate with over 15 years of experience. She has held senior positions in private practice with Clifford Chance & Edward Nathan and as an in-house corporate counsel at the International Finance Corporation and for Aliko Dangote of Dangote Industries Limited. Musonda currently serves as non-executive director on the Boards of Airtel Zambia Plc (where she is chair), Zambia Sugar Plc, Dangote Industries Zambia & sits on the Global Advisory Board for Scaling Up Nutrition Business Network. She was appointed by the UN Secretary General to be a member of the Lead Group of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement. She is the recipient of the 2017 African Agribusiness Entrepreneur of the Year award, which is an award conferred annually to entrepreneurs who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in agricultural input and value addition in Africa. She is also a 2013 an Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow.