Uber Eats Kenya has announced the appointment of Wangui Mbugua as General Manager for its Kenya business to further steer the growth of delivery services in the country.
Over the past two years, as people changed how they shopped for their daily essentials, groceries and ordered food, Uber Eats pivoted its business model to leverage these trends and saw growth as a result.
Wangui's appointment is set to drive the business on an even higher growth trajectory.
Wangui says the impact of convenience and on-demand commerce on the market is evident.
“I’m excited to take on this new role as I have seen the rapid growth of food delivery in Kenya and the growth that the business brings to the digital economy. The impact of convenience and on-demand commerce on the market is evident.
"Not only is Uber Eats creating unique work opportunities, but our operations have a positive knock-on effect for restaurants, merchants and delivery people,” Wangui said.
According to the new GM, the increasing demand for a diversity of delivery services points to a trend that, she believes, is set to continue expanding into the future, irrespective of the trajectory of Covid-19.
“While there can be no doubt that the stellar growth in demand for diverse on-demand delivery services has been catalyzed by the pandemic and the challenges of a protracted national lockdown, we believe the pandemic merely accelerated a consumer trend that was already developing,” she explains.
She adds, "While our business model was originally built with food delivery services top of mind, we found ourselves ideally positioned to quickly and seamlessly meet these changing consumer needs, as they rapidly developed over the past two years.”
Wangui joined Uber in 2019 as Strategy and Planning Lead for Uber Eats SSA.
Prior to this she worked at Koko Networks, an international technology company dedicated to bringing clean and affordable energy to low and middle-income households in Nairobi.
A legal graduate with an undergraduate degree in law and a Master’s degree in International Business and Commercial Law, she started her career as a legal intern for leading African law firm Bowmans and later moved to McKinsey and Co. as a management consultant.
General Manager of Uber Eats Sub-Saharan Africa, Nakampe Molewa, says Wangui has been an asset to the team since her arrival, "and we are excited about her new leadership role. We are looking forward to seeing how the business will flourish under her leadership.”
