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Diaspora Matters

ZBIN Competitive Advantage: Business Launches and Distribution Channel

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Our forum is anchored on strong business relations and to this end, we have invested heavily in networking of members over the past 9 years. We have various chapter meetings across the country such as in Mutare and Bulawayo—we also extend to South Africa with strong networks in Johannesburg and Western Cape.

Sports Days, Market Days, Admin Visits, Forum Tours, End of Year Parties and other events. On tours, we have conducted several tours to Mozambique (Tete x3) and Beira. We have also conducted various trainings across SADC in countries and created Whatsapp Groups of our trainees.

Now at 180,000 members on Facebook and 20,000 on Whatsapp—we recently reached a huge milestone of 100,000 Active Members on Facebook thereby making us the largest Business Forum in Zimbabwe. A significant number of the 100k members do know each other through networking and business transactions. Interactions amongst members do happen 24/7 as our forum is open for business.

Our main competitive advantages have therefore become;

Product Launches: We managed to successfully  launch 2 products across SADC in 2017 and 2018. Rugmaking(Tapestry) went viral as it blew up in Botswana, Eswatini, Malawi, Lesotho, and South Africa. It attracted thousands of trainees and resulted in us being honoured by the Zulu Kingdom.

In 2018 we made a follow up with a training on Sinamay Hat Training and the results were almost similar in uptake with an additional country of Namibia added to our list of coverage.

Therefore for corporates interested in launching new products across the region—we have the regional channel for engagement. From Durban to Mzuzu, Gaborone to Windhoek, Lilongwe to Cape Town.

Local Distribution Channel: Our well networked members have been pushing their products using the forum network with one of the trending product being Rabbit Bites from J&J Rabbits. From Bulawayo, more than 2000 rabbit bites are pushed throughout the country including to markets as far as Mutare and Kariba.

Therefore do you have launch headaches? If yes, then you may need to get in touch with us.

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Diaspora Matters

Our Scammer of the year: Mai Tawana

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Little is known of how the E-creator story was resolved  at the courts, but this is the biggest ponzi scheme in Zimbabwe this year. Crafted in Nigeria at the end of the year 2022 and introduced in Zimbabwe in February 2023 running for a good 6 months before busting. In Nigeria it was known as Amita and in Zimbabwe launched as E-Creator. More than US$2m was lost in the process despite warnings that the ponzi scheme had short legs.

Meanwhile on the forum we also witnessed one of the most sophisticated scams from a member called Charmz but popularly known as Mai Tawana. She advertised widely across social media including ZBIN. Her modus operandi was as follows;

  • Invite unsuspecting members of the public to partner in a fish deal.
  • He business model involved buying fish from Kariba and selling to Holiday Inn Hotel.
  • The first deal would go perfectly well—cash invested coming back with 100% profits.
  • Victims excited by high profits bait, would reinvest in the dubious fish project.
  • Victims asked to keep paper trail of fish procurement receipts—and Holiday Inn invoices. In summary running a Profit and Loss Statement showing huge paper profits.

Attempts to verify the existence of the Holiday Inn Buyer were not successful as she said he preferred remaining anonymous. And no one really verified whether there was any purchase of Kariba Fish. Therefore Mai Tawana involved in procurement …and also selling fish to Holiday Inn. Investors keeping profit statements and records.

Easy for students of finance to sniff out anomalies, but then ignorance is a multi- billion dollar business. By the time Mai Tawana was outted as a scammer—a total of $3000 had been lost by forum members. Outside the forum—Mai Tawana had fleeced investors of US$25,000.

Recovery attempts by victims did not yield much as she went underground.

Doing business in 2024 especially partnering with anyone? Think carefully and engage professionals before putting paper to pen and parting with your hard earned monies. Not all that glitters is gold. We expect more sophisticated scams to visit Zimbabwe in 2024 with most of them imported from high crime regions.

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