Diaspora Matters

The major objectives of the Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network forum are 1) Access to Opportunities Information, 2) Access to Markets, 3) Access to Capital and 4) Promotion of Networking. We have done exceedingly well on the rest of the objectives except Access to Capital.

Access To Capital is a universal problem for start-ups but we have introduced innovations such as Crowdfunding which has had limited impact but remains a viable option. But our best innovation has to be championing the access to capital through working on cruise ships.

Before the Covid-19 period—Access to Cruise ships was restricted to a tiny few but floodgates opened in late 2021 when the cruise ships industry started revving the engines once more with cruise liners back on the high seas.

The cruise ships had been the hotbed of Covid-19 infections with some employees unfortunately passing on and others moving on to other jobs. Recruitment policies were therefore relaxed allowing mass recruitment across the globe. This presented Zimbabweans with a rare opportunity to apply and get recruited.

Our forum was fortunate to have a member (Sherz) who had 9 years working experience on cruise ships. We sat down and brainstormed on how to get forum members on cruise ships by streamlining the process from developing legit links, design of relevant resumes and interview coaching.

And the result? More than 1000 have directly benefited from the advice shared and our estimate is a total of 5000 Zimbabweans managed to land cruise ships jobs. Most of them recruited for lower level positions such as Housekeeping, Galley Attendants, Youth Camp Staff, Assistant Photographers, Waitresses, Bar Attendants and others. Some got high level positions such as engineers, casino dealers, HR Managers, Pursers, ICT Managers, Entertainment Managers and others.

Recruitment was done online with some through job fairs conducted in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Top destinations being Carnival Cruise, Princess Cruise, Msc Cruis, Royal Carribean and others. Salary ranges from $800 per month to +$5000in addition to benefits such as tips for selected professions and cruiseliners.

The estimated benefit to Zimbabwe being 5000 estimated employees x an average salary of $16,000 per annum or $80m per year minus living expenses. The biggest advantage of working on cruise liners is that most of the basic needs are provided such as food and accommodation—and no transport costs. Therefore one can save more than 90% of salaries earned and bring it home.

These Zbinites got a once in a life time opportunity to fly for free on a chartered plane from RGM Airport to Hawaii for visas en route to Carnival Cruise ships in July 2022.

Those migrating to other nations such as care workers to UK cannot afford to save above 30% of their income as most of their incomes eaten by living expenses.

Dear Reader, This is how we managed to partially solve access to capital for our members. Of course these workers have other pressing needs to sort back home, but the belief is after supporting relatives and building own homes—businesses will be the top priority!

Of course it’s not all smooth sailing on cruiseships as one has to adjust mentally, emotionally and physically to an environment of hard work through long hours.

The Future of Cruiseship Jobs: In 2021 and 2022, cruise ships were desperate for employees with potential candidates wary of human trafficking or recruitment scams. However when the word quickly spread that indeed the jobs were bonafide—most of the low level jobs were filled. Jobs still exist but one has to be fast in applications, and also know the correct procedures of applications.

For first timers—Be wary of scams, and no funds required upfront by agencies. You do the whole process by yourself—from applications, interviews, medical clearances and visa applications.

The small businesses sector dominates the economy in Zimbabwe and therefore its natural that the biggest forums in the country will come from this sector. However is it easy to form a well networked forum in Zimbabwe?

This is complex science as networking total strangers in business takes ages. It is easy to form a Facebook Page and Whatsapp too and these pages can fill up within a few months to years. However most of those who join have a focus on selling—any other business is not material.

Therefore finding a small business forum that attracts at least 50 members on a regular basis is almost impossible. For a start, most small business owners are busy and weigh the costs of attendance of a meeting especially where no monetary incentives such as perdiems are offered.

To hustle and earn an extra dollar or the opportunity cost of attending a business seminar or event?

With more than 70% of the economy dominated by small businesses or informal sector or 10 million people. Zimbabwe should have at least 10 strong small businesses forums with membership of above 200,000 each. Strong well funded forums with presence in all the 10 provinces.

It should not be difficult to pick random members from the street and ask them to name at least 3 forums. But this is not the case due to a plethora of reasons.

The good news is that The Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network has been trying its best to network members over the past decade. We have made considerable progress in this area through leveraging on digital platforms where we now have an active 90,000 members on Facebook and 20,000 members on Whatsapp.

In 2023 we made great progress with meetings in new areas such as Mutare, Bulawayo and Cape Town. Although we recommend self sustenance of chapters—however members still expect the Harare Office to come and give support. As soon as we leave, no meaningful meetings or events take place.

Looking at the 2023 ZBIN Events, we believe the great work and support from members make us the biggest forum in the land although there is still great improvement required in many areas. Our members need access to capital as a top priority.

Our Mumpreneurs Forum launch in April attended by 150 members and showing the power of women in networking.

Women entrepreneurs support has been phenomenal.

Our third Mumpreneurs Markets on 25 November 2023.

Our first chapter meeting in Cape Town held in August 2023 and attended by 20 members.

Our biggest ever Bulawayo meeting held in June 2023

Introducing new initiatives always a challenge but the Sports Day was a success.

Again women entrepreneurs helped to contribute to the success of the Sports Day.

We conducted 3 Sports Days in 2023 with the first one in March, second one in June and third one in October.

Our ZBIN SA Chapter has been holding regular forum events for the past 5 years.

Its early morning in Harare, and a truck delivering bread makes a screeching halt at Tindo Tuckshop in Mabvuku and the driver goes to the back of the truck, takes 4 crates of bread and hands them to the Tindo Tuckshop owner. The driver quickly signs a delivery note for Tindo and is back on the driving seat heading to the next tuckshop.

In exactly 2 hours or less, the delivery truck returns and collects cash for the bread sold. Now this would qualify as one of the shortest credit facilities in the world! The shortest term credit was popularized by bread companies and currently Bakers Inn is the leading brand.

Tuckshop owners do not have upfront cash flows for ordering most products, but most of them are capable of consistently moving volumes—and this is where credit providers came in to plug the hole.

It started with bread but now more products are being pushed this way and they include mealie meal, sweets and candy, snacks and others. Some deliver the products and collect their cash in the shortest period of time ranging from a few days to a week.

You have possibly witnessed a lot of vendors at traffic lights especially in Harare who will be selling various goods from brooms, sweets, snacks and biscuits. Where do they get the products? Do they pay for them? An underground distribution channel now exists with registered vendors accessing products—sell and cash the proceeds to the supplier.

On the ground opposite Rainbow Towers in Harare—a motorbike truck delivers ice-blocks to vendor cart owners. Sometimes the delivery bike comes earlier than the vendors and then just leave the ice under trees and collect funds later.

Thinking of launching new products in Zimbabwe? You may need to analyse how this credit model is being used for inspiration. Interestingly we once employed this model when we launched a Crowdfunding Company that delivered mealie meal to high density suburbs in Harare.

The trick is not to leave your cash in the hands of tuckshop owners for too long as the propensity to spend it is very high thereby increasing the risks of default.

In 2017 our adverts on Tapestry or Rugmaking accidentally went viral across SADC attracting millions of followers across the region. We definitely made digital history as the ads which we shared on Facebook were eventually shared across Whatsapp Platforms in South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana and Malawi.

An atomic explosion that earned us an award from the Zulu Kingdom for the impact of our work across South Africa and KwaZulu Natal Province in particular. What was just an experimental advert turned out to be a complete opposite as thousands responded and we could not manage the avalanche. The power of digital marketing—nobody knows what can happen to content posted!

Is it possible to do a repeat? Yes we did in 2018 with a follow on project of Hatmaking although we could not reach the benchmark we had set in 2017.

We got a firsthand insight of the link between Facebook and Whatsapp—the 2 a formidable power in triggering viral content. Whatever is covered on Facebook and if good enough, eventually goes to Whatsapp where sharing is convenient. In the past there were no restrictions on sharing on Whatsapp but restrictions—one can no longer share forwarded  messages to many groups at once—only one group allowed at a time if it’s a forwarded message.

The Share Button is one of the most powerful digital marketing tools and need more analysis. Are you developing content that is easily shared? How many times has your content been shared? Shared across all social media platforms. Do you do content share audits?

We used to have Mambos Chickens dominating social media with their content finding loyal followers. We don’t know what happened—perhaps change in management?

Others are engaging SHARING Teams—the teams share content on their behalf helping to create or trigger viral content. We will research more on this and share with the forum.

The last box for ticking in digital marketing is the SHARE BUTTON—can the content be shared? Not shared by the creator but by independent followers. Is the value in the content or graphics good enough?

For ages local tourism has been concentrated in a few areas such that when one visits them all, there is no more appetite to keep returning. Some have been to Victoria Falls right from school trips, work assignments or workshops-and even on personal tours. The same applies to Great Zimbabwe, Hwange National Park, Nyanga, Gonarezhou and a few others. The marginal utility is bound to kick in as value of consumption goes down due to familiarity,

We would like to congratulate the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industries, Hon Barbra Rwodzi and we come with one appeal. Kindly visit the scenic Binga Beach along the Zambezi River and help promote the area by bringing investors who can spruce up the place and make it a preferred destination of choice for locals interested in our biggest local beach.

Instead of flying out to Durban or Capetown, locals could fly or drive to Binga and enjoy the little known side of Zimbabwe. The beach need ministerial endorsement and inviting locals interested in developing the place such as setting up hillside lodges, swimming pools, ablution facilities and food courts. In addition locals can benefit by selling curios to visiting tourists. In short economic development in Binga can be enhanced through investment on the Binga Beach.

Internal tourism can help keep greenbacks locally especially during holidays. Therefore Honourable Minister, our plea to you is to make Binga Beach one of your key areas by first visiting it and then develop a plan for promoting it.

Raising rabbits is not much of a problem, the process is fairly simple and many people can do it. However the biggest challenge happens to be access to markets. Despite great taste and health benefits, many shy away from rabbit meat. However, over the years more restaurants have been adding rabbit meat on the menus and the Chinese Community in the country has been one of the key drivers of demand.

Our forum has an active Rabbits Whatsapp Group where members share resources on raising rabbits. And one of our star members is Bulawayo based Trymore T Cee Nzou. Instead of complaining about markets access, he innovated and introduced Rabbits Biltong which he branded as Rabbit Bites and the response has been encouraging.

He leveraged on the 100k Active forum members and partnered with distributors such as Gwenn Chimuti and Audline Matsika in Harare who stock and push Rabbit Bites to Hararians. Massive demand for Rabbit Bites from Zbinites as the tasty rabbits gain traction.

The last time he travelled from Bulawayo to Harare for a ZBIN Sports Day, he boarded a night bus and then sold samples to fellow passengers and the response was overwhelming proving that a market does exist. Zbinite Tinashe Makuvise bought 20 Rabbit Bite packets and took them to hotels in Kariba and the response was the same-great uptake and positive reviews. Pause for a moment and calculate the distance between Bulawayo to Kariba via Harare!

The Bulawayo based youngster will soon be running out of space as demand surges. There have been inquiries from as far as UK from fellow Zbinites interested in pushing the bites.

The Power of Innovation!

There are more opportunities to be unlocked when youngsters add value and then collaborate in market development. Only the sky is the limit for those who combine thinking in other terms and hard work. Just like we helped push hybrid paw paws and cruise ship jobs-our next success story is on Rabbit Bites from Bulawayo based J&J Rabbits.

To those interested in Rabbit Bites, do contact Trymore on +263 777 988 092 or his Harare based distribution agents-Gwenn Chimuti on +263 719 224 766 and Audlin Matsika on +263 779 210332

Zimbabwe is home to the second biggest per capita informal sectors in the world according to UNDP and IMF. Over 60% of the population rely on the informal economy for survival. Therefore scholars of economics cannot avoid looking at Zimbabwe when analysing the shadow economy.

The major challenges facing small businesses include 1) Access to Markets 2) Access to Capital 3) Access to mentorship 4) Challenging Economic Environment, and 5) Other factors.

Given that this is an economy that deserves special place in the world. How has been the support to small businesses over the past years? A lot of efforts by the government, corporate sector and development partners with considerable amounts and resources poured. However given the extent of the demand—supply factors have just been a drop in the ocean.

In targeted rural communities, development partners have done commendable work in supporting livelihoods, provision of inputs (capital), trainings and market linkages. In some areas water availability has been enhanced with irrigation systems developed or resuscitated. The Government has also done exceptionally well in supporting key economic sectors such as Agriculture and Mining benefiting small holder farmers and miners.

The biggest challenge in all the interventions are urban areas.

It is easy to mobilise rural folks through use of traditional leaders and structures as communities are closely linked. However in urban set ups—this is a serious challenge.

Proposed solutions include tech hub interventions—however their reach is limited to a few hundreds or thousands per year. It is therefore difficult to derive meaningful data backed conclusions on effectiveness of such interventions. Entrepreneurs in Epworth, Makokoba, Sakubva and Mucheke may struggle to name any hub they are aware of.

Tech hubs therefore need expansion beyond the tiny few that are available as they are technically a drop in the ocean.

In our view, no one in Zimbabwe can effectively assist entrepreneurs given the scale of the need especially in urban areas where little support is reaching them. There is need for all stakeholders to form a team and these could include The Government, The Corporate Sector, Financial Institutions, The Civic Society, Universities and colleges, Urban and Rural Councils, Churches, Public Media, Telecommunication Companies and community leaders.

Zimbabwe needs a solid infrastructure for supporting small businesses and unlock value. This is the greatest missing link but innovations could be introduced to harness the existing digital infrastructure of websites and social media platforms. In Japan they have a digital ecosystem for supporting entrepreneurs. It is called Mirasapo which essentially mean supporting the future needs of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs linked to the Mirasapo have access to capital, markets, mentorship and other resources.

And on ZBIN we adopted the model that links our website to Facebook and Whatsapp Forums. Our members benefit from access to opportunities information, access to markets and access to peer to peer mentorship. This has seen us link up 100,000 Active Members which should be one of the highest in the world for countries with high informal sectors.

We haven’t fully reached our potential but believe we are in the right direction to connect over a million entrepreneurs over the next 5 years.

Our model as well as the Japanese Mirasapo model need tweaking and create a fully home grown infrastructure that support entrepreneurs. Classroom entrepreneurship teaching has been overtaken by events as only a few are reached.

We have now entered the last leg of the year with less than 7 weeks till 2023 comes to an end. Crime is expected to increase in line with increased spending and traffic around the country. Criminals usually increase their pace during this period and this week we witnessed an action packed movie style robbery in Southerton, Harare. A businessman lost a substantial amount of money but thanks to a dash board (dashcam) camera which recorded the robbery, the police swiftly moved in and arrested the culprits in hours!

Here are a list of areas our members are supposed to take great caution

Vehicle Purchases: A lot of vehicle purchase transactions do take place during the festive season. Criminals hang around garages ready to pounce. Move from one garage to the next making inquiries and you would have broadcasted to the public that you have cash.

Vehicle Sales: In a cash economy where most of it is kept at home–every vehicle sale is resulting in the cash being kept at home. And vehicle registration books in most cases provides evidence of the exact location where the cash is to be kept. Assess the costs of bank charges against the total loss of the funds including injury to you and family members. Last year many lost funds this way with sometimes hijacking taking place before the seller reaches home.

Residential Stands Transactions: Similar to the vehicle transactions noted above-avoid carrying huge amounts of cash to purchase stands or even sales. Avoid travelling long distances and be wary of sudden changes in venues for transactions. You are safer dealing with registered institutions including lawyers.

Bank Deposits and Withdrawals: Do not be predictable on your movements to banks-avoid predictable patterns that makes tracking you easier for criminals. The Southerton robbery could have been avoided had the businessman used Cash In Transit vehicle services.

Home Transactions: Avoid conducting transactions at home by inviting strangers to buy or selling to them. It makes it easy to identify targets by criminals. Rather, conduct transactions away from your home.

Advertising on social media could also send a signal that someone has cash or will soon have it. Therefor be in trusted forums and also think twice before posting. Fake Proof of Payments (POPs) expected to increase too and therefore verify, verify transactions before releasing goods. Be wary of big orders before your closing period.

We expect sophistication from criminals including targeting back to school transactions. Homes should not be left alone during the festive season and avoid night travelling.

The total export receipts for Rwanda in 2021 was US$2.1 billion and increased to US$2.9 billion in 2022. The interesting insight is in 2021, Rwandas exports equalled the Zimbabwe’s diaspora receipts for the year ended 2022! And in 2023 Zimbabwe received close to a billion dollars in the first 6 months. The expectation is to meet the US$2 billion mark by the end of 2023.

Therefore diaspora remittances do play a significant economic role in the country helping to provide liquidity and spur economic development. But as a nation do we have a solid diaspora engagement policy? Is it visible enough? What have been our key achievements over the past decades to engage and incentivise our foreign citizens to actively participate in business back home?

On this forum we do have tonnes of posts advocating for diaspora engagement but we eventually got tired of advocating for this. It is better to focus on what is controllable and that is individual businesses tapping into diaspora remittances value chain.

Judging from forum sentiments, the economy has been biting hard especially in September and October resulting in small businesses strategizing on operations with some relocating to cheaper rental premises-some in staff rationalization and other cost cutting measures. In Harare where office space had become difficult to find in recent years-in recent months the vacancy rates have shot up.

With Zimbabwe experiencing disposable income drought, businesses encouraged to diversify their risks through seriously considering how they can tap into diaspora remittances. Official estimates of the number of Zimbabweans in the diaspora difficult to establish but some put the figure at 5 million.

What are the diaspora interests in Zimbabwe?

Buying decisions: They are playing a crucial role in what products or services need to be procured such as meeting basic needs. Reaching out to the diaspora helps them make decisions and its easy for local companies to reach out to Zimbabweans in the SADC region. Digital marketing comes to the rescue.

Real Estate: One of the top needs of the diasporan community-property acquisitions or constructing own homes. From our forum, we have some who have mastered diaspora engagement in meeting their needs. If you are into the construction value chain-ignore diaspora at your own peril.

Entrepreneurship Projects: There is an increasing interest by the diaspora community in undertaking entrepreneurial projects back home. This is done as a safeguard especially due to insecurities around the ZEP permits for Zimbabweans in South Africa. Some are also supporting relatives back home involved in entrepreneurial projects.

Schooling: Some diasporas especially those around the region such as Mozambique and South Africa are opting for Zimbabwean education for their children. In the process they have direct involvement and interest in choosing schools for their children. Schools that reach out to the diaspora community therefore enjoy a competitive advantage over those that do not.

Funeral and Medical Insurance: Do we have local insurance companies reaching out to the diaspora as decision makers? Due to local laws, provision of insurance cover to the diaspora could be a challenge-but are they advertising their services to the diaspora community in Cape Town so that they could insure their relatives back home?

There is more that local companies need to do as a huge percentage of forex circulating in the economy can be traced back to the diaspora. Over the next 5 years the nation is expecting more than US$10 billion and more could come if incentives are put in place. Perhaps time for strategy rethink for local companies and be in the direct path of diaspora remittances.

I have read several times that no single entity dominates 2 Industrial Revolutions. And I have been trying to find out why without much success as I did not experience in real time the changes at a single entity. However finally over a week, I have been fortunate to observe how disruption happens and how the corporate sector responds.

So Whatsapp Channels introduced a week ago in Zimbabwe and Whatsapp has an estimated population of +6 million Zimbabweans and numbers should be higher when the diaspora population is factored in. Every serious business needs a strong presence on Whatsapp but its not an easy exercise—just a Whatsapp Number is good for now and Chatboxes for client experience. Much easier to be on Facebook, X(Formerly Twitter) and a couple of others.

Whatsapp Channels likely to be the anchor of the 4^th Industrialization E-Commerce Opportunities as it connects communities with business. Technically a new Search Engine under development and this will revolutionarize the way future business is conducted. We are expecting video streaming features creating a Youtube replica. Chat boxes to be introduced, Sponsored Adverts and Payment Platforms.

Do not rule out the eventual merging of Facebook and Whatsapp in the not too distant future. A lot of features to be borrowed from The  Chinese WeChat mobile app.

Crunch Time

A popular artist with nearly a million followers on Facebook has created a Whatsapp Channel and has had to start from zero followers and rising to 600 followers in a week. Starting from zero followers not easy when elsewhere you have millions of followers. Fortunately for him, his team had been helping to mobilise followers for him.

A fast rising Man of God with nearly half million followers on Facebook has created a Whatsapp Channel and currently has 15 followers. From 500,000 to 15? Psychologically this has serious impact as this could dent his brand.

How about a big well established Financial Institution? What sort of image will they potray when they start from 10 followers on Whatsapp Channel? No serious management will allow such an initiative as this will reflect badly on their performance. CBZ cannot start from 10 followers and grow over time. The start is definitely embarrassing and ego issues will play a part.

Therefore Whatsapp Channels discussions likely to be swept under the carpet. After all this has no direct relationship with current performance results.

Dear Zbinite, now you have the answer on why disruption often take behemoths by surprise! It’s not surprise as such as many internal stakeholders would have seen it—but personal reasons such as ego come into play. For small businesses—there are no ego issues—not afraid to start from the bottom and implementation speedily done. For big corporates, new innovations have to go through a long red tape and at each stage—reviews silently carrying ego risks. ‘What will stakeholders say?’ ‘We are too big to start from the bottom’

Our advice to small businesses is—move with speed on Whatsapp Channels and dominate the space. Join our subscribed forum where we are vigorously pushing for Whatsapp Channels adoption. Be first time adopters and enjoy the benefits. The corporate sector will eventually come when it becomes fashionable to do so and they will pour huge resources to grab market share. However some will fall by the wayside with new small businesses emerging and replacing them.

To strategic planning teams—this is a good case study on AI Competitive Advantage. Tech innovations, Ego Resistance and Disruptions. AI will be considered Suitable, Feasible but in the early days—Not Acceptable according to the SAF Matrix.