Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji, ranked by Forbes as East Africa’s richest person with a net worth of $2.1 billion, is set to invest Sh6.5 billion ($50 million) in a new soft drinks manufacturing plant in Mombasa through his conglomerate MeTL Group. The facility, expected to break ground within 12 months, will produce the company’s signature low-cost beverages — Mo Cola, Mo Xtra, and Mo Malto — marking MeTL’s first major industrial investment in Kenya. Dewji’s strategy centres on aggressive price competition: a 300ml bottle of Mo Cola would retail at approximately Sh15, less than half the Sh40 industry average in Kenya. The announcement was made during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi and signals a direct challenge to Coca-Cola and PepsiCo in East Africa’s largest economy. Dewji is also exploring investments in Kenya’s energy and hospitality sectors as part of a broader expansion strategy.
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Key Overview
- Investment Value: Sh6.5 billion ($50 million)
- Location: Mombasa, Kenya
- Company: Mohammed Enterprises Tanzania Limited (MeTL Group)
- Products: Mo Cola, Mo Xtra, Mo Malto (carbonated soft drinks)
- Target Retail Price: Sh15 per 300ml bottle (vs Sh40 industry average)
- Timeline: Construction expected to begin within 12 months
- Status: Planning stage; greenfield entry preferred, acquisition or merger also under consideration
- MeTL Group Revenue: Over $3.5 billion annually
- MeTL Group Employees: Approximately 48,000 across 11 African countries
- Additional Kenya Interests: Energy (independent power production) and hospitality sectors
East Africa’s richest man is preparing to challenge Coca-Cola on its own turf. Tanzanian billionaire Mohammed Dewji has announced plans to invest Sh6.5 billion ($50 million) in a new soft drinks manufacturing plant in Mombasa, Kenya’s second-largest city and its principal coastal gateway. The facility, to be built through his conglomerate MeTL Group, will produce the company’s flagship low-cost beverages — Mo Cola, Mo Xtra, and Mo Malto — which have already reshaped the carbonated drinks market in Tanzania by aggressively undercutting the pricing of multinational brands.
Dewji, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $2.1 billion in its 2026 rankings, making him the 14th richest person in Africa and the continent’s youngest billionaire, made the announcement during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi. The plant will be MeTL’s first major manufacturing investment in Kenya, adding to a growing wave of cross-border investment by Tanzanian business leaders into East Africa’s largest economy.
A Price War Strategy Built in Tanzania
The commercial logic behind Dewji’s Kenya entry is straightforward: price. Mo Cola’s 300ml bottle would retail at approximately Sh15 in Kenya, compared to an industry average of Sh40 for competing products. This represents a fundamentally different positioning from existing offerings, targeting the tens of millions of Kenyan consumers for whom major soft drink brands remain an occasional indulgence rather than an everyday purchase.
The strategy is a direct replication of MeTL’s approach in Tanzania, where Mo Cola — named after Mohammed Dewji himself — reportedly overtook Coca-Cola in sales volumes within a decade of its launch by consistently pricing below the global brand. MeTL’s beverages now command a dominant position in Tanzania’s carbonated drinks market, with one estimate from RMB — which arranged a $340 million syndicated working capital facility for MeTL in 2024 — placing MeTL’s share at roughly 70% of Tanzania’s carbonated drinks market.
Dewji told Business Daily that MeTL intends to pursue a similar consumer-first strategy in Kenya, targeting low-income consumers who remain underserved by mainstream beverage brands. He noted that Kenya’s current cost-of-living pressures make the timing particularly ripe for an affordable alternative to enter the market.
Why Mombasa?
The choice of Mombasa as the manufacturing base is strategic. The coastal city provides immediate access to the Indian Ocean, reducing the importation costs of essential raw materials such as industrial sugar, specialised syrups, and packaging polymers. Mombasa’s connectivity to the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) and the Northern Corridor highway network also offers rapid distribution of finished products into Kenya’s interior and neighbouring landlocked nations — a critical advantage for a company built on mass-market, high-volume sales.
Dewji confirmed that MeTL has already acquired land in Mombasa for the project. He described the investment as being at the planning stage but said progress is moving quickly. “We are right now at the drawing table, but we think that it is very possible that within 12 months, we may be able to break ground,” he told Business Daily. He added that MeTL is leaning towards a complete greenfield investment but is also considering the possibility of acquiring or merging with an existing Kenyan player to accelerate its market entry.
Kenya’s Beverage Market: Dominated but Vulnerable
Kenya’s carbonated soft drinks market is one of the most concentrated in the region. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa holds approximately 93.9% of the carbonated drinks segment in Kenya, supported by decades of brand equity, cold-chain logistics, and a distribution network that extends to the most remote corners of the country. PepsiCo is the only other major global player with meaningful presence. Local brands such as Kevian Kenya (Pick n Peel) hold just 4.8% market share, while smaller players like Excel Chemicals and Highlands trail further behind.
The market has a well-documented history of absorbing and defeating challengers. The most notable case remains Softa Bottling Company, launched in the late 1990s by Kenyan businessman Peter Kuguru. Softa came close to breaking Coca-Cola’s grip by offering affordable alternatives, but eventually collapsed under the weight of distribution battles and the marketing muscle of its global competitors. Several other local and regional brands have attempted to carve out meaningful share over the past 25 years without lasting success.
However, analysts say the current market dynamics may be more favourable to a well-capitalised newcomer. Kenyan consumers are under sustained pressure from inflation and aggressive taxation, including ongoing government efforts to broaden VAT coverage. Brand loyalty tends to weaken when household budgets are squeezed, creating openings for affordable alternatives. Stephen Mutoro, Secretary-General of the Consumers Federation of Kenya, has noted the opportunity in this gap, suggesting that a properly positioned low-cost brand could gain traction among price-sensitive buyers.
Coca-Cola has also recently announced a significant investment of KES 23 billion in Kenya, aiming to enhance production capacity and expand its product offerings — a move that may in part reflect the company’s awareness of emerging competitive threats in the region.
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MeTL Group: East Africa’s Largest Indigenous Conglomerate
The Mombasa plant investment is backed by the full weight of one of Africa’s most diversified indigenous industrial groups. MeTL Group, founded in the 1970s by Dewji’s father as a small trading company, has been transformed under Mohammed Dewji’s leadership into a conglomerate generating more than $3.5 billion in annual revenue and employing approximately 48,000 people across 11 African countries. When Dewji took the helm in his late twenties after studying at Georgetown University and working briefly at McKinsey, the company was generating roughly $30 million in revenue. Today, MeTL’s operations contribute approximately 3.5% of Tanzania’s GDP.
The group’s business lines span manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverages, textiles, energy and petroleum, financial services, telecommunications, logistics, real estate, and trading. MeTL owns a fleet of over 2,000 vehicles and operates more than 100 trade outlets across Tanzania alone. Its consumer brands cover everything from flour and cooking oil to soap, toothpaste, and bottled water. It is also sub-Saharan Africa’s largest textile producer, with four mills producing more than 100 million running metres of fabric annually.
Dewji has been building momentum for the Kenya entry alongside other regional expansion efforts. He confirmed to Business Daily that he is simultaneously setting up a beverages plant in Uganda. In 2023, MeTL announced a $100 million investment in four Rwandan agribusiness ventures covering edible oil, soaps, grain milling, and beverages. Speaking at the Africa Forward Summit, Dewji also revealed MeTL is considering a potential $1 billion investment in agriculture, focusing on large-scale commercial farming alongside support for smallholder farmers across the continent.
Beyond Beverages: Energy and Hospitality
Dewji’s ambitions in Kenya extend well beyond soft drinks. He is also exploring investments in the energy and hospitality sectors as part of MeTL Group’s broader multi-sector expansion strategy.
In the energy sector, Dewji is considering investing in power production as an independent power producer, as well as in transmission, following the liberalisation of Kenya’s energy market by the government. MeTL already has experience in energy and petroleum through its Tanzanian operations, where its subsidiary Star Oil is active in fuel importing, storage, and distribution.
In hospitality, Dewji is looking to construct hotels in Kenya, though he has not yet confirmed a specific location. Both sectors have recorded sustained growth in Kenya and align with MeTL’s strategy of entering markets where long-term structural demand supports large-scale investment.
The Man Behind the Empire
Mohammed Dewji’s personal story has become inseparable from the MeTL brand. Born in 1975 in Singida, a small town in central Tanzania, he is the second of six children in a family of Tanzanian traders whose ancestors left Gujarat, India in the late 1800s. His grandmother ran a small trading shop from a house made of mud and sand. After studying at Georgetown University in Washington and working briefly at McKinsey, Dewji returned to Tanzania and took the helm of MeTL in his late twenties.
He served as a Member of Parliament for Singida from 2005 to 2015 under Tanzania’s ruling party CCM before stepping down to focus fully on business. In 2016, he became the first Tanzanian to join the Giving Pledge, the initiative founded by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, committing to donate at least half his wealth to philanthropy. His Mo Dewji Foundation focuses on education, healthcare, clean water access, and community development.
In October 2018, Dewji was kidnapped from a hotel gym in Dar es Salaam in an incident that captured international attention. He was released after nine days and has spoken publicly about how the experience sharpened rather than diminished his ambition for MeTL’s expansion across Africa.
A Broader Trend of Tanzanian Investment in Kenya
Dewji’s Mombasa announcement is part of a wider pattern of Tanzanian capital flowing into Kenya over the past five years. The investment underscores the growing influence of regional capital in East Africa’s largest economy and aligns with broader trends towards intra-African trade and investment under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) framework.
For Kenya, the entry of a well-capitalised regional competitor into its beverages industry could deliver tangible benefits for consumers in the form of lower prices and greater choice. For Dewji, Kenya represents a market he says he simply cannot afford to ignore. “Kenya is the largest economy in our region. Yes, Kenya is more advanced, more competitive, but if you’re taking a long-term tenure, then it is definitely a country that you cannot ignore,” he told Business Daily.
Whether Mo Cola can achieve in Kenya what it accomplished in Tanzania remains an open question. The obstacles — from Coca-Cola’s entrenched distribution networks to Kenya’s regulatory environment and the market’s history of defeating challengers — are substantial. But Dewji’s track record, MeTL’s scale, and the economic pressures facing Kenyan consumers suggest this may be a different kind of challenge than the Kenyan market has previously faced. Construction crews in Mombasa may soon find out.
Sources: Business Daily Africa / Billionaires Africa / TUKO / Africa.com / Monitor Uganda / The Citizen Tanzania / CNBC Africa / Invest Africa / Campden FB / RMB / Shore Africa / Euromonitor / Streamlinefeed / The Kenya Times / Pulse Uganda / Eastleigh Voice
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