Jesca Mhoja Nkwabi leads a major Tanzanian manufacturing conglomerate while empowering youth and women through entrepreneurship and economic development.
Dr Jesca Mhoja Nkwabi is one of Tanzania’s most influential young business leaders. She heads the KOM Group of Companies as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), overseeing an industrial empire that spans 26 regions in Tanzania and employs over 400 people.
As CEO, her responsibilities span agro-processing, industrial manufacturing, consumer plastics, retail, import and export, and food production, and each of these sectors embodies her signature approach to leadership.
The KOM Group is a family-owned conglomerate founded by her father, Mhoja Nkwabi Kabalo, and is one of the country’s most diversified manufacturing groups. She grew up in an entrepreneurial family that has been in business for over 20 years, which exposed her to the structure and discipline required to run a company. Thus, Jesca Mhoja Nkwabi’s entrepreneurial journey started long before she even earned her degrees.
That background later blended with her formal education, which includes a Master’s degree in International Business and Finance from De Montfort University (England) and a Doctorate in Business Administration from the University of the West of Scotland, which she completed at just 27.
She then strengthened her executive capacity through leadership development programs at Oxford University and Harvard University, which shaped the global perspective she now applies to her work at KOM.
Under her leadership, KOM Group has expanded far beyond its early operations. The company now produces edible oils from cotton and sunflower seeds, manufactures animal feed, and processes cotton through ginning operations. It also runs large-scale infrastructure manufacturing, supplying PVC and HDPE pipes, fittings, steel tubing, and aluminium roofing sheets to markets across Tanzania.
In addition, KOM produces a wide range of consumer plastic goods, including basins, buckets, utensils, and chairs. Beyond manufacturing, Jesca MhojaNkwabi has grown KOM’s retail and services portfolio, which includes a supermarket, a pharmacy, a bakery, and a restaurant. This mix of industries positions KOM as one of Tanzania’s strongest and most diversified industrial players.
KOM provides formal jobs that help reduce poverty and strengthen household incomes by employing more than 400 people. The company also supports local farmers and suppliers by sourcing raw materials for its oil, feed, and cotton operations. Its manufacturing outputs equally contribute to Tanzania’s industrialisation goals, and its wide regional footprint enables economic activity in areas that rely heavily on supply chains for growth.
This commitment to quality and scale has earned KOM several major recognitions, including National Exporter of Quality Products and multiple continental awards acknowledging its leadership in manufacturing.
Parallel to her corporate work, Nkwabi has built a strong reputation as an advocate for women and youth in entrepreneurship. She serves as Chairperson of Young Women Entrepreneurs and conducts entrepreneurship workshops, mentors emerging founders, advises institutions such as Ashesi University on entrepreneurship education, and pushes for inclusive participation in business sectors that traditionally underrepresent women.
In 2021, Jesca Mhoja Nkwabi was named Manufacturing Founder of the Year under 30 and received the Tanzanian She Hero Award. She also received the Young African Business Leader of the Year Award at the 2024 African Business Leadership Awards. Furthermore, she was the Young Business Leader of the Year at AABLA 2024 and the co-winner of the African Female Business Leader of the Year at ABLA 2025.
