Podcasts · Pure Digital Passion with Moses Kemibaro
Episode 199 - Jaza Supermarket's Willy Kimani, Visa's Anne Kinuthia-Otieno & KFC's Jacques Theunissen On The Future of Digital Commerce In Kenya
· 51 min · Episode 199
Episode Episode 199 - Jaza Supermarket's Willy Kimani, Visa's Anne Kinuthia-Otieno & KFC's Jacques Theunissen On The Future of Digital Commerce In Kenya
Three businesses, one Kenyan consumer, three very different answers. Willy Kimani left Naivas to build Jaza Supermarket, a neighborhood affordable supermarket chain that sells on WhatsApp. Anne Kinuthia-Otieno built Airtel Money Kenya and now runs Visa across East Africa. Jacques Theunissen turned KFC's regional franchise from 30 loss-making restaurants into more than 70. I moderated their discussion panel during Glovo Kenya's Future of Commerce Summit yesterday and asked what it takes to be built to win.
Recorded live at the Radisson Blu, Upper Hill, Nairobi on 23rd October 2026, this episode of the Pure Digital Passion Podcast is the full opening panel of the summit. In it: why a KES 5,000 phone has no room for another app and what that means for every retailer in Kenya; why KFC's self-service digital kiosks lift the average basket by 10 to 30 per cent and are as popular in Kakamega as in Westlands; what tokenization is, explained with a casino chip; how a weekly digital payment turns a cash business into a bankable one; what Visa is doing about AI agents that want to check out for you; and the one capability each panelist says a Kenyan business must build in the next twelve months.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Opening question: the moment a customer showed you the way they buy had changed
00:35 Willy Kimani: the Tuskys customer who wanted her shopping carried to the car
02:28 Anne Kinuthia-Otieno: an 18-year-old orders his school kit online from abroad
03:58 Jacques Theunissen: "convenience actually is time"
06:04 Gen Z wants control: self-service kiosks and a 10 to 30 per cent bigger basket
06:47 Willy: Uchumi's lost idea, the gap between the kiosk and the hypermarket, and Jaza's 34 stores
10:08 Anne: from dressing up for the bank to a card you leave at home
14:13 Jacques: every channel is growing, customers order three times a day, and the three rules
18:59 KFC in Sandton: from a special occasion to a utility
20:27 Willy: why Jaza sells on WhatsApp and not an app, and what to rent from Glovo
24:05 Willy: the direct API integration with Glovo
24:52 Anne: the digital gaps holding small businesses back, the cost of cash, and the casino chip
29:48 A transactional history is the path to credit
30:53 Anne: Visa Accept and overdrafts timed to a trader's best days
32:44 Jacques: which technology paid back fastest, integration, and kiosks in Kakamega
37:17 Audience: why are banking apps so bad? Visa Pay and the SDK answer
40:33 Audience: is e-commerce cannibalising Jaza's stores?
42:45 Audience: what is Visa doing about agentic commerce? 89 per cent, 29 per cent and single-use cards
48:08 Closing question: one capability to build in the next 12 months. Drones, integration, people
50:38 Close
THE PANEL
Willy Kimani is the Founder of Jaza Supermarket, the neighborhood affordable supermarket chain he started in December 2023, now at 34 stores across Nairobi. He was Chief Commercial Officer of Naivas for seven years, Chief Operating Officer of Uchumi, and a senior leader at Tuskys, and is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Retail Trade Association of Kenya.
Anne Kinuthia-Otieno, MBS, is Vice President and Head of East Africa at Visa, responsible for seven markets. She was Managing Director of Airtel Money Kenya for nearly five years, growing it from around 400,000 to more than five million active users, after a decade in retail and SME banking at Barclays and Absa.
Jacques Theunissen is Chief Executive Officer of Kuku Foods East Africa, the KFC franchisee for the region. He took over a loss-making business of just over 30 restaurants in 2020; it now runs more than 70, employs over 1,600 people and sources 99 per cent of its inputs locally.
GLOVO KENYA
Website: https://glovoapp.com/ke/
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ke/app/id951812684
Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glovo
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