Diaspora Matters

The ZBIN forum is a strong business community that includes all nationalities. We have nationalities from India, Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, Malaysia, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa. We even have 50 followers from Manila in Phillipines who follow the forum on a daily basis. Indian nationalities interested in business in Africa have been slowly coming to the forum  and now stand at more than 500.

We have 2 business App groups for foreign nationals and they include South Africa (1,000) and  Malawi (200). All of the groups help to provide a platform for business discussions and networking. In the case of South Africa, ZBIN members will be carrying out more trainings as we help our members to expand their businesses across the rainbow nation.

Below we feature one of our correspondents based in East London, Siviwe Vava Melane. Known as Vava or Vee, her clan name is Mamhkhomazi, owner of LLikwezi Trading, Mbokodo Indaba Foundation and Hotplate Catering Deco and Events. She can be contacted on +27 833 318 9 219

How to start restaurant business

Before you even think of where you will run your business guys you must know the type of food that you want to serve. Yaz in the townships where we grew up in, there were only 3 types of businesses, spaza shops, the shebeen and lamama who sells fish, amagwinya, tripe and has an occasional stand se vegetables. When it comes to… food people or customers are very loyal. That’s why those fat cakes produced graduates.

I remember an interesting event that happened in 1997  when I visited the University of Zimbabwe inorder to collect MBA application form. On my way going out of the campus I was stopped by security guards at the exit gate. The  security guards in green uniform started searching my car and asking me questions such as where i had purchased my spare car battery and whether i had receipts to prove purchase. I tried my best to comply since I had nothing to hide but the whole process delayed my exit from the campus by more than 10 minutes. Every car leaving the campus was facing similar searches leading to a long queue of cars and i thought this was unnecessary! I asked myself whether cars leaving Harvard or Oxford University campuses would face the same treatment?

I became curious of this arrangement and started an unofficial research project on internal controls and risk management. My project included establishing risk management practices at the oldest institute of higher education in the nation. After a few weeks of study, my fears were confirmed….the university had poor risk management practices.

The institute receiving a lot of public funds did not have an internal audit department! For internal controls and risk management, they relied on external audits and of course the security guards who were searching vehicles. On realising this weakness , I wrote a brilliant article highlighting the need to improve risk management at the university-the article was published by a popular daily. The good news is that university immediately took action and set up an internal audit department to beef up risk management practices. I have not made any follow ups but would like to believe that the situation is much better with the internal audit department having oversight of all college funds and resources right from the Bursar Department up to Faculty Offices.

In this article, Iam back again at colleges not looking at risk management issues but an important area of university researches. In Zimbabwe, every university student must produce a research project which must be presented to lecturers during the final year at college. This applies to under graduate and post graduate students as well-there is just no escape, one must be equipped with hands-on research writing and analysis skills.

A number of brilliant researches do come from students and some are worldclass! I remember during my college days where I had a  friend called Tineyi. Whilst everyone was busy writing projects to do with Accounting, Tineyi had other ideas. He was designing an accounting system which he presented to the lecturer for marking. Everyone in our class presented hard copies of projects bound in a book form but Tineyi submitted a hard copy of his project plus a disk containing  his accounting program which he had designed.

Iam not sure whether our Accounting lecturer knew how the accounting program worked or he just gave the brilliant student a distinction without fully appreciating how the accounting software was designed. Tineyi was simply ahead of his time and iam sure that it is going to take several decades before another accounting student at my former college develops an accounting software as part of final year projects.

Universities letting the nation down

Most research projects are filed in universities storerooms after submission and marking. After hard work by students and marking by lecturers , the project is stored in a dark room and this will be the end of usefulness of the project. Sometimes students interested in knowing how to write projects may retrieve old projects in order to familiarise themselves with project writing guidelines and after a few years these projects are taken to the university inferno for burning.

In this article the intention is clear-lets effectively use knowledge generated by young and brilliant minds from the nation. Instead of storing hard copies in dark storerooms, how about selecting a few brilliant projects and uploading on university websites? More than 30, 000 college students graduate every year in Zimbabwe. How about uploading a few hundreds onto each university website so that the nation can benefit by reading top class researches by our students?

A lot of Zimbabweans are looking for information on various topics such as Health, Law, Agriculture, Engineering, Business and other areas but there is very little information that is accessible. The information that can help the nation is lying somewhere in a dark room or worse-it could have been burnt!

Recommendation

Universities should take advantage of the abundance of researches that are being carried out within campuses. Realistically they cannot upload every research produced by everyone, they can however choose the best, those that got distinction marking and upload them onto their sites for use by the whole nation. The corporate sector provides a lot of support to students who will be doing researches. I have assisted a lot of youngsters carrying out surveys or Corporate Governance, Management Accounting and Financial Analysis. After giving them information they just disappear and i never get to know what became of the surveys or research project.

College students are getting information for research from the local industry; they must come back and present results. They may not be able to physically present the results but universities can upload the researches for download. They can do this for free or even charge a certain amount so that they can cover the cost of administration.

With modern management practices requiring evidence decision making, the need for researches and analysis in Zimbabwe cannot be overemphasized. The nation needs researches and the good thing is that thousands of researches are being produced with some of them world-class. All that is required is for local universities to improve on documentation and then meet the demands of all stakeholders. In the case of the Small to Medium Scale Enterprises, we have to rely on surveys and researches done by institutions such as IMF, World Bank or World Bank. It is disheartening to read stories of a visiting World Bank delegation that will be coming to carry out researches on the business sector in Zimbabwe. They should just complement what we already have and not be constantly visiting the nation to help us with researches and analysis.

Do these visits by international delegations mean that the nation lacks talent? I do not think so, there is an abundance of talent especially within our universities. The only area that needs improvement is the documentation part. With students now submitting soft copies, the documenting and uploading part is now easier than before. Uploading a reviewed research project takes 2 minutes!

The hope is that local colleges will move with time and take advantage of emerging technologies and especially their websites to engage with the community they serve and deliver relevant skills and researches. Student research projects should not be taken to the incinerator before analysing whether there is a demand for it because you could be burning innovative projects such as Tineyi’s accounting software which would have become Zimbabwe’s first local accounting software produced by a university student.

Talent Chawapiwa is no doubt the biggest talent of the recent COSAFA tournament. Many are asking where this talented man was all along? A good passer of the ball, this speedy and  skilful player should have been crowned the player of the tournament! He came with no less than 4 goals assists and also scored 2 brilliant goals and capped the tournament with a man of the match award on the final match which was won by Zimbabwe.

He chose the COSAFA tourney to show the nation and the world at large the talent that abounds in the country! Many questions are being asked by many soccer fans and the first one is ‘Where was Talent all along?’ Why was he not showcasing all of these skills at club level? Surely had he been included in the warriors team that played Liberia, perhaps we could have added our goal tally to 4 or 5?

Inorder to answer the question of where Talent was, we will quote soccer legend and analyst Alois Bunjira who has this to say about the talented Talent:

‘At FC Platinum Chawapiwa plays in gear number 5 at 200km/h while the other players are in gear 3 at 80km/h.He goes with the ball forward …and finds noone in support..and has to turn back.That assist for Mushure, I am sure at FC Platinum the closest player supporting him would still be in the centre circle jogging forward.He is then forced to dribble backwards…..and some people see it as he is not playing well. At FC they cannot compliment his pace’

The talented talent is not being used effectively at club level because of his lightning speed and superb talent. These are the weaknesses that were observed by the Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambwa, he corrected the weaknesses by ensuring that Talent had support whenever he rushed into the penalty box. The result is the brilliant performance of 4 goal assists, 2 goals and a man of the match performance in the final game against our rivals north of Zambezi.

Lessons learnt for Entrepreneurs

You may be another Talent Chawapiwa, brilliant ideas-full of innovation but lack supportive systems of an enabling environment. We have seen this with a number of talented youngsters who are developing brilliant Apps which are finding no takers. One such App was developed by a youngster who is a member of this forum. He developed an App that helps to solve the issue of poultry farmers who face problems of marketing their chickens. The App developed helps to connect farmers with potential buyers. If you would like chickens, you simply log in and connect with various chicken farmers with chickens for sale.

How has been the response by the market? The response has been lukewarm-few took notice, few registered and we are sure that the youngster should be a disappointed man. Here was a free service to help the nation with marketing problems so why few takers? The reason for this response is simple-the youngster is in the same situation with Talent, as Alois Bunjira puts it’ travelling at 200km/hr in gear 5 whilst everyone is travelling at 80km/hr in gear number 3.

Does this mean you have to reduce speed? No, not at all….keep shining, keep flying high, keep innovating. The rest of the nation maybe taking time to appreciate Apps but they soon will with time. He has already assessed the problems with uptakes of Apps and its time to go back to the drawing board. Did he market it well? Did he involve the users of the innovation? Did he work with poultry producers, poultry farmers associations? Did he approach poultry companies for possible partnerships?

All of these questions will help him relaunch the Mobile App and ensure that it is well marketed and received by users. His time will definitely come like what Talent recently did in South Africa at the COSAFA Tourney.

We have been busy registering volunteers on the forum and would like to thank everyone who contacted us inorder to register. We hope to fully use the talent at our disposal and help improve the capacity of the Small to Medium Scale businesses in Zimbabwe. We are extremely proud of some of the credentials of the volunteers with some being high calibre business executives leading blue chip companies across the globe. We extend our gratitude to every volunteer based locally and abroad. We would like to tap into the expertise and  exposure that some of you are exposed to working across the globe. Zimbabwe should come out the winner at the end of the process, we hope too that volunteerism will be extended to other sectors such as the medical field.

The Story of Nyasha

The story of Nyasha which we published on Thursday went viral attracting more than 2000 viewers in less than 3 days. It became our all time best read business story to date. What is remarkable is the fact that ZBIN does not have an advertising budget to date! We only publish stories and rely on the forum to read or support posts. If it is good, folks will appreciate likewise if it is average, one can expect the same response. We accurately captured some of the issues that are happening underground and not reported on, we captured the issue faced by highly talented Zimbabweans who are not getting opportunities to showcase their skills and help organisations that they work for. When you stifle talent the result is that you disadvantage the organisation that you work for. You also disadvantage the whole country as it loses a competitive advantage against regional countries. The same talent will eventually flee and run companies that compete with Zimbabwe on exports markets!

More stories will be coming up that capture business issues that hardly get coverage and our trip in the next few weeks should capture business or opportunities in Mozambique which rarely get covered. This is the benefit that the forum is bringing to the Zimbabwean business community.

The Bad News

Bad news for the forum is that one of our best IT talents has been poached by a leading think tank. The youngster was world-class, he helped to set up the forum and was actively involved in some of our digital market initiatives. We however wish him well as joins one of the best UK headquartered organisations. We take pride in the fact that some organisations based in Zimbabwe still value talent and are ready to snatch it when they come across it. The young man will now become a volunteer assisting the SME sector in Digital Marketing whenever he is free.

What to look forward to this week

We will be covering one of our key objectives-Access to finance! We will explore the funding options available to the SME sector, how easy it is to access it and the challenges that members encounter in trying to access finance in the current environment. We also have already started discussions around the cash crisis which is worsening by the day. Do expect a detailed write up by end of week when we would have captured all of your views. The objective is not to fold our hands when we see a situation worsening and yet we have huge or unlimited potential within our ranks.

Investment Tip

Lastly we give you an investment tip. We have been making a lot of noise around tenders, why you should track tenders as they show the industry or sectors that will be developing. Tenders help investors to know where to put money as this is the sector where big funds are spend! If you would like to grow as a business then consider tenders. This is how some of the big guys in the business sector managed to make it. Studying tenders and going for them-do not limit yourself in terms of funding, find others to partner with. Dr Strive Masiyiwa did not have funds when he won the MASCOM tender in Botswana! So apart from tenders another way to grow in the business sector is through being a distributor agent. A lot of products exist in the developed world which are still to come to Zimbabwe. They include pharmaceutical products, electrical, IT and automobiles. My recent visit to an East Asian country showed more than 50 phone models…all of them can easily find a market in Zimbabwe if members have the right information. Some do not even need cash upfront if you negotiate well. We will cover more in the coming weeks.

Till next week, Mwashuma

Over the past few years the trend has been that of Zimbabweans emigrating to other countries and this has resulted in over 3 million being based on foreign soil. An analysis of Diaspora remittances show an upward trend , in 2009, remittances stood at $294 million and increased to $552 million in 2012, $788 million in 2013 before rising to $935 million in 2015.

Whilst this upward trend will continue in the short to medium term, our expectation is that one day the Diaspora will return and reverse the trend. One day there will be a stampede to come back to Zimbabwe by the Diaspora community. A presentation by the Minister of SMEs in South Africa, Ms Lindiwe Zulu showed that foreign investors are slowly coming back to Zimbabwe to look for opportunities. They may not be investing yet but are getting ready to tap into opportunities that abound in Zimbabwe. A few in the Diaspora are doing the same coming here and there to the country and checking on possible opportunity areas. Like foreign national investors, they are not investing yet but waiting for the right policies and support or trigger events that will result in reverse migration.

How do you get prepared?

Most potential foreign investors coming to Zimbabwe to scour for opportunities use South African Airways flights which is where Ms Zulu observed that not all foreign nationals on these flights are not necessarily tourists. She just confirmed what we already know at ZBIN! So for the Diasporan son or daughter of the soil to tap into opportunities that exist all you need to do is to be prepared. You have to identify your area of interest where you have strengths in and get yourself a business plan. Review the business plan on a constant basis incorporating changes in the policy or operating environment.

Preparation for investment is a process which takes time and you need to be part of supportive forums or platform where business ideas are shared. You need to be part of support forums where you discuss business experiences with others facing similar situations. The forums can be in Diaspora or in Zimbabwe-all you need is to get information of what is working or what is not. Information shared on various platforms plus professional expert advice will equip you with the right information and skills for effective decision making.

The potential foreign investors who are flocking to Zimbabwe are joining business forums in Zimbabwe, some are getting professional advice on available opportunities and how to prepare for them. They are being told of possible triggers for the Zimbabwe Gold Rush and what to do when the triggers come to effect. They are studying case studies of countries that have been in similar situations such as ours and what happened when the right conditions for investment were created. Some are following government initiatives such as Ease of Doing Business and Economic Export Zones. Some are looking at the development of the Diaspora strategy and looking at opportunities that will be presented by the strategy. Of course the biggest issue that potential investors are looking at and monitoring in the political landscape!

Practical Examples of preparation

You may not necessarily need to invest at one go, you may do investment on a piecemeal basis and one of the best strategies is to develop strong relationships or links with organisations back home. One can take the example of an IT company run by Zimbabweans which has approached us looking for mentorship opportunities. We gladly approved their request to join and they will be assisting the ZBIN community with digital marketing e-lessons, drafting manuals to assist the informal sector and providing limited funding assistance. They will be helping Zimbabwe IT professionals on our group by linking them with other experts in South Africa.

The end result is that they will slowly build their name by partnering with a leading forum for the SME sector in Zimbabwe. They will slowly build their brand and get acceptance by hundreds of thousands of followers of ZBIN. Such association will result in them improving current business as they will be exporting to Zimbabwe, the bigger benefit for them is that they would have prepared enough groundwork for expansion to Zimbabwe!

They will not be on the same footing with someone who will be coming with investment funds and trying to build a brand or reputation at one go. You do not build a brand in one day-it takes years. Even at ZBIN, we did not get thousands of followers in a single year, the project started in 2012 with a group of a few friends meeting online and deciding to form Zimbabwe’s biggest online business community. Therefore the best strategy is to partner with organisations or forums that have a strong following. This will assist you in getting ready for investment. Some groups are for free and some you may need to subscribe to. It is your duty to look for social groups or platforms that give you value for money in terms of business or investment information.

Regularly assess such platforms whether they give you value for money, whether they are forward looking and track events on the ground in preparation for an investment rush. The ball is in your court, get ready for opportunities and assess your situation and take corrective action if need be.

*One way to track opportunities and get ready for investment is to track public tenders. Tenders tell you the full story of the investment climate-where are funds going to? Which sectors are growing? Where is the Private, Government or NGO sector spending funds on? The ZBIN provides this information for free once every 2 months or on a weekly basis to subscribed members.

Exporting goods, services and technology to the Chinese market” takes and in-depth look at the requirements and processes relevant for European SMEs looking to export their product into China.

No matter if you plan to export goods, services or technology, as a first step you will always have to determine which restrictions apply in your industry and product group; this report will give you an idea of the intricacies of these regulations and where to look for further information.

The chapter on goods, the most common type of product imported to China, also covers aspects like necessary licences and different types of quota and standards, while later sections outline fundamentals of sales and purchase contracts, foreign exchange control and different distribution channels and what they imply in terms of time and other resources necessary.

Report Outline

• Goods
  • Process for exporting your goods to China
  • Free imports, Restricted imports and Prohibited imports
  • Standards and China Compulsory Certification (CCC)
  • Labelling and Packaging
  • Entry-exit commodity inspection and customs
  • Relevant taxes and fees for the import of goods
• Services
  • Process for exporting your services to China
  • Service industries encouraged, permitted, restricted and prohibited for investment
• Technology
  • Process of transferring your technology to China
  • Technology approved for import
  • Restricted and prohibited technology
  • Technology transfer contract
  • Relevant taxes and fees for the transfer of technology

The Chartered Management Accountancy profession is one of the strongest business qualifications in the world. In Zimbabwe less than 10 individuals pass the final stage each year and in South Africa its less than 40 every year. With head quarters in the United Kingdom, the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants produces some of the best business leaders and this is why it is in high demand worldwide. The unique blend of management accounting, financial accounting and business-focused subjects produces competent and confident CGMAs who can lead their organisations to sustainable success.

The Story of Nyasha

A few years ago this writer was referred to a young lady called Nyasha who lived in Prospect Harare, an academic genius, at the age of 18, Nyasha was the best A level student in Botswana. At the age of 21 Nyasha had passed the final exams of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). She had not only completed the CIMA final exams but was the third best student in the world! This was not her first world record as she had also won several CIMA national and world record prizes for individual subjects. To date she is one of the brightest young Zimbabweans who have flown the national academic flag high in the field of Management Accounting. Her academic record is something that the nation should be proud of!

Nyasha fails to find a job

The young lady was soon to find out that excelling on the academic field can be a curse especially in the current environment. Most managers with average academic achievements fear young , innovative students with impeccable credentials. Nyasha was to respond to numerous job vacancies applying for various jobs in the Private sector, NGO sector and Government and was never responded to, she was never shortlisted. Even companies looking for trainee graduates did not want her near an interview room.

Why was she failing to get a job?

I had a good discussion with the then CIMA Country Office Manager, Mr Moses Sikwila asking why such rare talent is jobless? The answer from him was that she was putting the ‘world prizes’ on her curriculum vitae and this was scaring potential finance managers interested in employing her. Who would want a world class student in his or her team? She will be a strong threat to the finance team leader and this explained why she was roaming the streets of Harare unemployed. She had to tone down the world academic record –perhaps remove them totally from the curriculum vitae and project herself as an average student?

Nyasha and Mentorship Programme

The fact that Nyasha was failing to get internship or trainee jobs did not make sense at all. In other countries such rare talents should be celebrated and cherished. In other countries such rare talents results in companies fighting for her. Realising that nothing fruitful was going to happen, I designed a mentorship programme that would assist her in getting relevant work experience so that she could land a job.

Removing the World Records on her Curriculum Vitae

I did not agree with removing her excellent academic record from her resume. She needed to wear the badge of  CIMA with honour and not care who does not appreciate nor fear  it. I designed a mentorship programme for her which included part time working experience working on a couple of projects for the Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network forum. I also got her a part time job writing accounting modules for a leading Accounting Training Institute called Asranti based in the United Kingdom.

I also redesigned her curriculum vitae putting the world record academic achievements on top ! The good news is that she later on got a job at a local boys high school in the capital where she worked for a few months. Our target of the mentorship programme was for her to get commercial and business skills and the excellent news is that Nyasha landed an excellent job as a Finance Manager for a construction company based in Botswana. The Twanas saw value in this gem and were quick to grab her, they did not waste time in grabbing this rare talent which had been rejected by Harare.

So what was happening to Nyasha?

What was happening to Nyasha is something most young people can relate to-lack of opportunities in all the sectors of the economy. Even in cases where job opportunities exist-those with the best qualifications are sidelined because someone is afraid and wants to protect his or her job. In the case of CIMA qualified students the situation can be worse because managers who do not possess the qualification generally fear competition that is posed by the leading profession. The best strategy employed by those who fear it is to create barriers for this qualification and make sure that no ACMAs join finance teams!  It is not surprising to find a finance department dominated by a single accounting body. If a Finance Director is CIS qualified then he is likely to fill his department with only CIS qualified accountants. If the Finance Lead is ACCA qualified then she is likely to only allow the recruitment of ACCA qualified personnel.

Recommendation to Recruiters

The biggest asset in an organisation is human capital, this human capital should be well trained and be diverse. Human Resource Managers should be wary of barriers for talent such as Nyasha. In the case of Accounting, all accounting bodies play a crucial function in the success of an organisation. A Chartered Accountant or Certified Chartered Accountant plays a  crucial role in areas such as financial reporting, treasury management, internal controls, compliance and audits. A CIMA qualified accountant will complement the roles of the other accountants by bringing business or commercial skills, researches and expert planning. A good finance department should create value by bringing a mix of all accounting bodies under one roof where feasible. When a finance director creates barriers for other accounting bodies then the biggest loser is the company because competing company with a right mix of skills will definitely perform better than the one where practically everyone thinks the same.

The creation of barriers is contributing to the lack of competitiveness by most local companies and when one day the economy opens up, a lot of local companies are going to face stiff competition from new entrants that would have studied this weakness. If you are not allowing new talents to join your organisation then you risk losing out on new skills being imparted to new graduates. The United Kingdom headquartered  Finance Bodies are well known for carrying out thorough and relevant researches that result in them designing curriculum that is in demand by business leaders worldwide. The strong emphasis on continuous education enables members to be up to date with emerging finance and business skills.

Leading Zimbabweans who have studied CIMA includes the former Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudakwashe Kudzayi who was believed to be the brains behind  the Baba Jukwa character. The impact of his work is not surprising to some of us because the new syllabus has a strong content on Social Media and Business. Readers are encouraged to read the chapter on IT and Competitive Advantage for Business. Other prominent people to have studied CIMA include the ZIMPLATS CEO, Mr Alex Mhembere and Dairiboard CEO, Mr Anthony Mandiwanza.

Nyasha as a ZBIN Volunteer

Harare may have lost this rare academic gem to Gaberone but we believe that we can still tap into her expertise. Nyasha has agreed to volunteer for ZBIN and will inspire and provide counselling to youths who have gone through similar experiences. Through our volunteer programme, she will provide expert advice  to those studying Accounting or Finance or entrepreneurs on the forum.

We have an important document that helps our members who are rearing poultry. It is the Poultry Diseases Manual, feel free to download or refer to it in future whenever you run into poultry diseases.

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The  promulgation of SI (Statutory Instrument) 59 of 2017 should be welcomed by all entrepreneurs. The new law on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) primarily targets foreign investors so that they can set up businesses in Zimbabwe in designated areas. The designated areas would enjoy special preferences in terms of issues such as taxation, import and exports.

A pessimistic view would result in someone thinking that locals would not benefit at all. This is far from the truth, locals are bound to benefit If you strategically place yourself to tap into various opportunities that are going to arise.

A look at similar SEZ projects shows that in Jamaica industries such as the following were set up:

Logistics and Warehousing-product distribution, third party logistics and container breaking

Non Food Manufacturing and Assembling-packaging and labelling, pharmaceuticals, automotive assembly, electronics and medical devices

Food Processing-shared co-packing facilities, research and development

Repair and Refurbishment-used automobiles, appliance warranty centres

Information and Communication Technology-call centre and back office services

Education-universities and college training centres

We do not have information on the specific industries that will be covered by the SEZs but we believe that the above industries will be covered in great detail. The opportunities that are presented by this initiative involves partnering with foreign investors on various projects. There will also be an opportunity for knowledge transfer which will come from this initiative. The forum hopes that the Diaspora community will be  included too and benefit from favourable policies in these centres. The Diaspora community is already bringing in twice the amount invested by foreign nationals in the country.

So look at this initiative as a window of opportunity to be grabbed, do follow developments in this sector and strategically position your self for emerging opportunities.