Monica Musonda walked away from a high-paying, in-house lawyer working for one of the continent’s wealthiest businessmen and walked straight into one of the most tumultuous but rewarding business ventures of her life.

At one point, nearly all of Zambia’s food was imported from other countries and she saw an opportunity to move into the food manufacturing business to address the problem! She gambled on the fact that Zambians would pay less for good quality, locally made food brands – and she was right.  Today she is the CEO and founder of Zambian based Java Foods which manufactures staple food products like noodles and cereals and has turned them into household brands in Southern Africa. 

Monica encountered a multitude of hurdles in her journey which were made worse by the fact she was a woman. She had to deal with sexist customers who couldn’t believe she was the brains behind the business and had to deal with feelings of ‘imposter syndrome’ as her empire grew.  But like any superwoman, Monica took things in her stride especially when she became a single mother – she simply travelled everywhere with her daughter. Monica is super smart, super sharp and is unstoppable.  Find out how she did it. Listen to Monica’s story here.