Diaspora Matters

Our third premium talk yesterday was conducted by Charity Kanosvamhira a Zbinite based in Maputo and conclusion? Priceless…Remember Mozambique recently discovered oil and gas worth an estimated US$130 billion with drilling set ups already under way. The news has attracted plenty of investors from far and wide. There is so much optimism with a lot of infrastructure development underway. This is the most optimistic country in the region when it comes to investment although on a flipside some insurgents in the North are causing all sorts of havoc.

Key Points

• Agriculture –massive potential in cattle rearing, piggery, poultry, onions, tomatoes and oranges. Most of these products imported from South Africa but the Mozambique Government giving land and supporting farmers.
• Construction—massive boom, there is a construction explosion in Maputo, probably the fastest expanding city in SADC. Zimbos benefiting too but its not enough. Hotels, residential and commercial properties. Builders, welders and other artisans—open cheque there for you.
• International Schools—Students are treated as clients! Teachers should ensure that students pass locals exams. They inform students what is coming in exams and ensure every student passes exams. For this reason, the Zimbo expat community prefers Zimbo education or sending their children to Swaziland for education. If you crowdfund and set up a boarding school in Maputo with Zimbo educational standards then wapinda!
• Events Management—Opportunities for those interested in events management including consultancies for companies setting up  in Maputo interested in hiring employees or familiarisation with Mozambique systems.
• Traffic to Maputo—there are 3 buses that leave Mbare every Wednesday and Saturday  headed for Maputo through the Sango border. Two buses leave Mbare taking passengers to the border at the same time. Expect more buses in future heading the same direction.
• Two gas plants constructed in Maputo as the city taps into newly found gas reserves offshore. Opportunities Red flag—If a gas plant is constructed in Beira then new opportunities for Zimbo traders. Most of our gas imported from South Africa but South Africa does not have gas fields—so watch closely developments in this new venture.
• Insurgents in Cabo Delgado—yes there is war in Mozambique but its mainly concentrated in the mineral rich provincio of Cabo Delgado to the far Northern region bordering Tanzania. The distance between Maputo and Cabo Delgado is like Harare and Durban. Our oil trucks ferrying fuel from Beira are currently doing so safely. Some Zimbo  engineers are also working on the gas and oil rig plants in Cabo Delgado and Maputo.
• Nigerian Entrepreneurs—they own most of the tuckshops in Maputo which sell goods at a much cheaper price than leading retail shops such as SPAR. They are joined by the Rwandese and Burundians.
• Expat Salaries—Mozambique now preferring their own expertise with expats being replaced by locals. Some expats now resorting to getting Mozambican citizenship. Please note that there are no USD salaries in Maputo—you get paid in Meticais and convert to USD.
• Traffic to Swaziland(Eswatini)—there is growing traffic of Zimbos heading to Eswatini with even a kombi owned by a Zimbo based in Maputo transporting compatriots to the mountain kingdom. What business they are doing there is still under wraps.  
• Afrikaner Community—When it comes to tapping into opportunities in Africa, our white cousins from Mzantsi come top and are followed by Nigerians with Burundians and Somalis following. The Afrikaner community has formed various investment forums. They have every reason to panic for the gas industry is going through a transformation. SA will in future lose gas  markets in Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi and DRC. What is worse? They will also import gas from Mozambique! Question is where are Zimbabweans?
• Bedsheets—Maputo is a humid coastal town and there is huge demand for bedsheets and this market is ours with some Zimbo ladies exporting bedsheets over the years. They sell on credit and collecting their money after agreed periods. Well done to Zimbos!

This is just a snapshot and there is more but instead of inquiring or relying on hearsay, get yourself in Maputo and observe developments on the ground. To Zimbos in SA, Maputo is a few hours away from Jozi. Team up with others just like the Afrikaners and not be left behind.

Of course learn basic Portuguese—unlike Beira and Tete where you can get your way around using Shona, in Maputo its strictly Portuguese, few communicate in English.

Homework for Zimtrade: Mobilise Mrewa and Mtoko farmers, teach them about access to Mozambique fruit and vegetables markets. Help them to process border paper work and export their produce across Nyamapanda Border Post. It does not make sense for Tete to import fresh produce from Joburg passing through Zimbabwe and through Mrewa and Mtoko when we can easily do so in less than 2 hours.

No doubt a long article, apologies for taking your precious time but this kind of information can only be found from ZBIN—discussions, our books and website. Make a date with us for the next Premium Talk next Friday.

Muito Obrigado

“Looking for a farm near Harare 30km radius to rent with easy access to water”. This in now the new tag line in most social media groups as the race for horticultural farming business intensifies. With land allocation having been temporarily halted to pave way for the land audit by the state land has become a precious commodity. This is especially true for land surrounding major cities such as Harare.

Perhaps the lockdown could have had some influence on the whole scenario as people suddenly found themselves with more time on their hands to utilise .We recently conducted a random survey to find out what is trending in terms of business in Harare. Top of the list with 45.37% was farming “Kurima ma vegetables”, which means growing vegetables which loosely encompasses every fruit and vegetable you can think of. This was quite an interesting observation as global trends show that fruit and vegetables are being dumped in tonnes as there simply is no market to absorb the product. This is largely due to the Corona virus as hoteliers and restaurants which are some of the biggest absorbers of fruit and vegetables were largely closed. This brings up the question, how viable is the fruit and vegetable business right now in Zimbabwe?

The survey took us all the way to MbareMusika which is perhaps the largest fresh fruit and vegetable market in Zimbabwe. Here we found cabbages being sold at shockingly low prices of 1USD for 10 heads of cabbages. Considering the input costs this farmer would be lucky to break even and more likely to make a loss. One of the farmers 28 year old  Ronald or “Murimisi”, as he is popularly known by the touts at the market because of his high quality produce from Ruwa had this to say,” This time the market is bad, usually these touts come to my farm to buy these cabbages but not this year, the market is flooded I would rather recover something than let my produce rot, already I have run a loss by bringing produce all the way to Harare”. 

This is the case with most farmers, most farmers made the mistake of following the trend without carrying out a proper analysis. Everyone now wants to get into the fresh produce business because this is where the money is, ok no problem with that but at least do it the right way. The following questions will help you carry out a quick self-assessment.

1. What can you grow which does well in your climate?
2. Do you have the financial capital to run this project?
3. Do you have the expertise to grow the crops or are you able to hire qualified person?
4. Do you have a proper financial budget for growing the crop?
5. Do you have a ready market for the product?

If you do not check all the boxes above, I would strongly advise you rethink before diving into the veggie business. In farming one thing is for sure if you take short cuts you are bound to fail.

Then there is a special type of farmer who has particularly good financial capital base, this one will not spare a cent often randomly buying equipment and inputs without budgeting or proper planning. Perhaps they get into it for the selfies they post on Instagram nobody knows, however when financials are done at the end of the season the farmer would have made a loss financially, no business is ever run like that. Growing crops as a hobby and not running it as a business is not sustainable, bottom line is if you are to succeed in farming, small-scale, or large-scale you need to run it as a business. Plan, invest, execute, and harvest principle should always apply.

In conclusion I think it is pertinent to emphasize that farming is not a get rich quick fix. Experienced farmers will tell you that horticulture is a capital-intensive venture and it may take you 2-3 seasons before you start realising any significant profit as you sharpen your skill and correct errors. Remember it is always a worthy investment for farmers to employ the services of a professional agronomist to plan your cropping and production to get good results.

Emmanuel is a qualified Agronomist and Development Practitioner with more than a decade’s experience working in the agri-business industry and development sector. You can contact him on edndsep@gmail.com or WhatsApp on 0783495396

Entrepreneurship is made up of 2 parts, the arts side and the science part.

The science part is relatively easy as its covered at school—your accounting, law, human resources, risk management etc. Zimbabwe has excess capacity on this area. Google searches can pull out millions of pages on any topic on the area.

The arts side: How to spot opportunities and take advantage at the right time. Essentially how to make money! This is an unstructured field and no one can say they know it all—if this area was as easy as the science aspect, then everyone would be rich!

So ZBIN focuses more on the arts side of business and only 2% of the science aspect. This is reflected in our posts, books and other material. Ku science taabhoo—diplomas, degrees, professional certifications etc. Tikati mu ZBIN buritsai ma qualifications, we will get a Mt Kilimanjaro Mountain of certificates.

So we have been conducting Premium Conversations—perhaps one of the best initiatives this year which started with our meetings in February & March before the novel pandemic scuttled our plans but we are back doing it digitally.

Started with Mr Low, an accountant turned entrepreneur who is into dog breeding with him unable to meet demand from security companies where he sells dogs for between US$300 and US$500. And you are never going to see a newspaper article featuring a dog breeder sharing his experiences!

He also shared how climatic change opportunities are keeping his  team busy with solar installations for boreholes.

He touched on boar goats and how it’s a fast making business venture giving returns faster than cattle rearing. He selflessly shared more information and if you missed—apologies there is no repeat!

Mr Garande the Hybrid Paw Paws Farmer

On Friday we hosted a premium talk show on hybrid paw paw farming with Mr Garande sharing the following information;

• Seed to maturity:  9 months
• Return on investment;

Using minimum yields for a rain fed crop for 1000 plants

–1000 seeds=US$200 or seedlings for US$3000

–Tillage=US$100

–Labour for 12 months=US$3.600

–Manure/fertiliser and pesticides=US$500

–Total inputs=for seeds ($4200) and for seedlings (US$7200)

–Assuming each plant gives you 20 fruits selling at $1 each that means;

–$20k-$4.2 =$16k(seeds) or $13k (seedlings)

• In general paw paws sell for US$1 per kg around the world but in Zimbabwe they can sell for for as high as US$4 per kg.
• Leading producers include Thailand, Brazil, Mexico but Kenya and Tanzania are now being counted as strong forces
• Life span of paw paws-4-5 years but over time they cease to be commercially viable
• Soil types: well drained and slightly alkaline with sandy loam being ideal. The best time to plant is the start of the rain season although in theory you can plant all year round depending on temperatures (avoid winter)
• By products: Papaya Juice, dried papaya, papaya latex for pharmaceutical companies
• Water : Approximately 1500mm annually
• Germination: -8 days to 3 months
• Spacing: 2m x 2m
• Most paw paws in local shops imported from South Africa

So next Friday we tackle Fresh Farm Exports by our forum agronomist Dube.

What a unique year—3 months to go? And this Covid-19 is now the norm but look at the devastating impacts. The good news is South Africa new cases are going down, hoping to witness similar trends this side.

What new strategies can you employ for the remainder of the year:

• The futures is basics—align your business model to Food, Accommodation, Transport, Education, Health and Energy.
• The future is entrepreneurship—your business model should support entrepreneurs or enable others to make money
• The future is solid relationships—our forum groups facilitate networking, take advantage
• The future is digital—if you mentioned the importance of digital platforms last year, few would take interest but the Covid-19 accelerated the adoption of digital strategies
• The future is exports orientated—unbelievable returns by a small clique of Zimbabweans farming for exports to Europe
• The future is crowdfunding—get experience of working well with others on digital platforms, effectively using them to raise capital and form businesses.

Learn new languages—Portuguese, French, Mandarin and Swahili

Learn new skills—Baking cakes, events management, hat making, carpentry, farming, digital marketing, app development, website development, cyber security, data science etc

Empower your kids—school is not enough, do not leave your children on empowerment, trainings, books etc

Read new business books—financial literacy, critical thinking, entrepreneurship etc

Farming: Get your business plan for the next farming season ready, the time is now—do not wait for December or January to begin preparations.

Exit and Join meaningful groups—Do not clutter your phone with meaningless groups. Select at most 5 key groups. Effectively participate but if the group is full of meaningless groups, then press exit at the earliest convenience. You are hanging with the wrong crew!

As a forum, we are not going to be creating new groups, infact we will be closing and consolidating groups so that we will only have a few effective groups.  Every Thursday there will be a key presentation by members .  Our next one is on Hybrid Paw Paw growing and we only have space for 70 members to fill up the group.

Launches

We will be launching our Women’s forum on the 5^th of September: A great initiative on women empowerment.

We will also be launching our Borehole Crowdfunding initiative on the 6^th of September and the initiative seeks to raise capital to buy borehole machinery that will drill boreholes for members at an affordable cost.

We have a small helpful handbook on Ponzi Schemes which chronicles the history of ponzi schemes in Zimbabwe, the tricks used and how to identify future ponzi schemes and action you need to take.

We have also started compiling our 2021 Business Opportunities Book. It is our 6^th book and follows the same model of previous ones of focus on practical opportunities and Zimbabwean experiences. It should be out by early December 2020.

So pause-review how operations have gone to date from January and craft an injury time strategy for the rest of the year.

Muito Obrigado

Officially the Bitcoin started making a lot of noise in Zimbabwe around 2016 although it had been launched earlier. The launch price was extremely low but over time rose to significant amounts above US$20,000 before crashing.

Why did we not all focus on the opportunities presented by the capital gains in Bitcoin?

Lack of financial literacy: Yes we have a lot of financial studies at schools and colleges but financial literacy is not adequately addressed

Too many distractions: The MMM collapsed with US$6m disappearing—add the Zvihuta collapsing after so much promise—add the collapse of the Online Forex Trading craze where some unscrupulous trainers vanished with clients funds. Confidence in new initiatives plunged to rock bottom and anyone talking about Bitcoins found few takers.

A nation hit by rock bottom confidence as a result of imported initiatives was understandably risk averse although a few multi millionaires were created through Bitcoin investment.

We spoke at great lengths about ponzi schemes on the forum even going as far as predicting the exact date they were going to collapse. But our mandate is on opportunities and what are the new opportunities Zimbabweans are going to miss as a result of a confidence deflating ponzi schemes experience? But did the forum really fail on Bitoins? Do chek out our 2018 book-this was adequately covered albeit a bit late!

So good forumites, we do not want a repeat of the loss from Bitcoins—to our members, what opportunities are we likely to miss in 2020?

On a monthly basis we summarise developments on the forum. This latest edition covers more opportunities in Malawi.

Enjoy

On previous business models we covered the barter trade business model which is taking rural areas by storm.

Borehole drilling in exchange with cattle,

Solar Irrigation systems for cattle,

Collect your cattle fatten them and sell at a premium!

We also covered the entrepreneurship support business model. Everyone wants to make money and if your business is to sell to the final consumer then its not going to be sustainable in the long run.

Make other make money—don’t eat alone. Support entrepreneurship which is the fastest expanding sector in the world. Econet introduced Eco-Agents and boosted business, Musina is popular for supporting entrepreneurs. Seedco, Vet Distributors, Chinese Factory Shops in Jozi etc

Network Marketing also follow the same model and clearly, this model is with us for a very long period of time!

Business Partnership Model

Today we had a Zoom meeting for the steering committee on Borehole Crowdfunding. Members will be interested in getting a borehole set up and after everyone gets a borehole what happens to the machinery and equipment?

The drilling rigs converted to commercial use by shareholders! Now this is better than simply having a borehole drilled on your premises…

How much money have you paid to Nyaradzo? So they never bothered to give you share capital based on your contributions? To say those who contributed for 10 years we are giving you a certain percentage of shares?

So Econet just takes funds from us but never bother to make clients shareholders? Yes of course we know where their shares are traded but for all these years—we have nothing to show for using their systems?

The next funeral assurance company to take the country by storm will craft strategies to make clients shareholders.

So these schools just collect school fees and as soon as your child leaves the school that’s the end of the relationship? The biggest school model will have parents owning a stake in the school…

As financial literacy levels increase in the country, many are now asking tough questions—for how long should we continue to be consumers?

If you want ownership then go to the stock exchange?  People already know of this but will say its not enough—they want more!

So save this post –check how this aligns to your business model, follow trends too in the economy.

The downside of the model is it can be taken advantage of by scammers.

So we initially lived in caves? Then moved to round huts in villages before moving to cities ka?

Men used to go out to hunt with women staying around with kids to help with chores and the family would meet during the evening for dinner and updates of what would have transpired. This was prime time and our focus of discussion.

Whilst everything else has changed over the past centuries—Prime time has not changed much except adding more hours and we will return to this later.

Let’s go back to the rural areas or the Stone Age.

In the evening dinner served, stories of experiences of hunting being discussed, folk stories for kids, men at a Dare discussing strategic issues—no better definition of Prime Time.

Then urbanisation came and the family structure was disturbed with men heading to the cities with families following later.

The Newspaper Era

But these men still needed social life after work, they needed prime time and the newspaper was invented… available in the morning and evening but this was a cheap version of prime time entertainment and many were not impressed.

The original prime time had experiences—face to face discussions. Everyone participated; laughter, jokes, poetry etc.

The Radio Era

To improve on prime time, they introduced the radio. They added a voice to newspapers and for a while this worked but still this was a cheap version of prime time. Where were the faces?

The Television Era

In came televisions providing a better prime time experience—movies, soccer, cartoons, news etc. We were pretty much close to the original prime time but there was one major problem—who developed TV content? Why did someone dictate the content of Prime Time?

Back to Reality: Digital Era

So digital platforms were created (Internet Era) with social media—a blank platform with no content but users filling it up with own content.

Dear Zbinite, whilst the rest of the world was advancing technologically, one thing remained constant –prime time. And we were trying over the years to go back to history using advanced technology! Isn’t this confusing?

We are technically advancing backward? Now that’s an oxymoron ka?

What are the implications on Digital Marketing?

Your adverts should align with prime time experiences;

• Short: Remember social media is all about entertainment and ads disturb entertainment.
• Entertaining: Disturb entertainment with entertainment ads and few will pick out your tricks. Storytelling, jokes, memes etc
• Relevant: What is trending? Align your ads to trending issues.
• User experiences: How does your ad make users feel emotion-wise?

Sorry for lack of space, I will add more on this interesting topic. Sadly most training on Digital Marketing leave out this crucial step and just dive into how o market on digital platforms without explaining the psychology behind—retracing to history and the experiences factor!

About 99% of ads that we see around are aligned to the newspaper era whereas the world has since moved to the Television and further to the internet Era.

If you did not get access to our Digital Marketing Book, then you need to save this somewhere for this is the anchor of Digital Marketing–forget about all the fancy terms you can bump into. If you do not appreciate the psychological perspective then you haven’t started.

Digital Marketing is the best thing that ever happened to entrepreneurs but it needs some key basics.

All the best

We did share what we believe to be arguably the best advice to entrepreneurs this year—business models that are relevant post Covid-19! It’s your task to search for it on our Facebook Page or risk missing the train.

In our latest newsletter, we also shared the barter trade business models playing out in farming and rural areas. Got a borehole installation company and worried about demand? Rural areas are teeming with farmers with a lot of cattle but little cash. Some have moved in to install boreholes and solar irrigation systems in exchange for cattle which they rear, fatten and sell in urban areas.

We are wired to view rural areas as outposts of poverty but is it?

We covered the business model of supporting entrepreneurs and why this is the fastest growing business model across the continent with studies we carried out across the region.

• What is keeping Siyaso Entrepreneurs busy?
• What is keeping Chinese Factory shops in Joburg busy?
• What used to keep Ecocash busy?
• What is keeping Delta busy?
• What is keeping Seedco busy?
• What is keeping Vet Distributors busy?
• What is keeping network marketers busy?
• What is keeping Musina busy?
• What used to keep Roadport busy?
• What kept ZBIN busy across the region?
• What kept Zvihuta farmers busy?

What is keeping the nation busy is entrepreneurship. There are many unemployed and under employed people with some estimates putting unemployment rates at above 90%. The Covid-19 is adding more numbers each day. The small business sector becomes the biggest in the country with over 10 million people.  The question becomes-how do you structure your business model so that you help support this sector and also boost your business? Selling products directly to the end consumer? Not good enough, include entrepreneurs to make money too and share the proceeds.

Selling luxury cars? Not ideal at the moment—sell money making cars!

We go on to another dimension of entrepreneurship which is fast money making ventures. Do people have enough patience? We can refer to studies on the attention span which has dropped to 7 seconds. The world is spinning at a faster rate and patience is wearing thin.

Which ventures have been trending over the past few years?

Chicken rearing , Miracle monies, Money changing, Ponzi schemes, Soccer betting, Buying and selling, Gold mining, Network marketing, Second hand car selling, Zvihuta, Mshikashikas,  Sack Potato farming, Online forex trading, Bitcoins , Hybrid Paw paws, Hybrid Rabbits and others.

There are fewer takers for gumtree plantations; investment horizons have plummeted to less than a year and in most cases reduced to weeks or even days. Buy and sell forex and earn money in minutes. Give the pastor money and it’s multiplied in an instant? For this reason, all future opportunities now need to factor less investment periods.

Few are patient enough for projects that span longer than 6 months. Farm maize or buy and sell? Rear cattle or chickens?

Why less patience

After spending a lot of time at school and colleges working extremely hard to obtain degree certificates, many are fast realising that patience does not pay as there are no jobs.

The digital era is making everything fast—all spheres of life from business to religion.

The economic challenges have been with us for far too long and add Covid-19 and the situation could not be any worse.

The loss in value of pensions for many leading them to look to entrepreneurship for salvation.

The rise of those who are unscrupulous who show off their ill-gotten wealth on social media.

One for the road

For policy makers including the donor community; if you are not talking about entrepreneurship, then few will listen. If you are a newspaper editor and your newspaper does not cover opportunities then expect the number of readers and adverts to continue sliding southwards.

If you are a church and you do not cover opportunities then expect to be irrelevant in the not too distant future.

For entrepreneurs, the question is does your business model enable others to make money? If not then expect trouble in the coming months.

Lastly most of the money invested by Zimbabweans is flowing towards entrepreneurship—so follow the money!

From the book: 2019 Revised Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans.

‘You learn different things from your grandparents than you do from your parents, and I had the opportunity to spend my summers from ages 4-16 on my grand parents’ ranch in Texas

My grandfather was a civil servant and a teacher—he worked on space technology and missile defence systems in the 1950 and 60s for the Atomic Energy Commission-and he was self reliant and resourceful. When you are in the middle of nowhere, you don’t pick up a phone and call somebody when something breaks. You fix it yourself. As a kid, I got to see him solve many seemingly unsolvable problems himself, whether he was restoring a broken down Catapiller bulldozer or doing his own veterinary work. He taught me that you can take on hard problems.

When you have a setback, you get up and try again. You can event your way to a better place’

Dear Zbinite, these are the words of the richest man on earth—Jeff Bezos the founder & Chief Executive Officer of Amazon at the Anti Trust Hearing this week!

What do we learn from this? Grand parents play an influential role in inspiring our children. Is this new? Not really as we once covered it on the forum. Our revised 2019 book which is available for free on the forum covered this on Chapter 5 on career guidance.

We said grand parents are in a unique position to know the DNA of the family—what is the family good at? Take for instance your paternal grand mum;

She could have been privileged to see your grand great father and mother observing what they excelled at.

She also saw your grandfather as a youngman observing traits passed on from his father.

She saw your father being born, she raised him and could trace DNA from his father and grand father.

She also saw you being born! And could trace the generational DNA from 3 past generations.

If you are fortunate, she could also have witnessed your own children being born!

Now dear forumite, who is the best person in your family to know all about the family DNA?

This is the best resource person and no career guidance expert can do better than her.

Grand mothers used to test the skills of grandkids by giving them tasks such as rearing chickens, planting certain crops and assessing progress.

This is where the concept of ‘Ane ruwoko rwekurima, ane ruwoko rwekuvhima came from’

Talents were tested from an early stage. They did not wait for you to go to school before identifying your talents.

Now here is the interesting part—every kid has talent and in the past they nurtured it. This is why unemployment was nill before the modern educational system came.

Does the school system identify and nurture talent? To some extent yes as students are placed in different classes such Sciences, Commercials and Arts. But students have pressure to study hard in certain fields with the most promising job prospects.

How do you determine the talent of a student with 8 As at Ordinary level? Is it possible that their natural talent could be in Arts but society pushes them to pursue Sciences?

Apart from the schooling system—how does it identify and support entrepreneurship?

We have to go back to basics and revive what has worked and producing excellent results in the past. Grand parents are the first teachers and the first career guidance experts too.

Maximise the time your children can spend with their grand parents– this is beneficial to their future growth. The summers Jeff Bezos spend with his grand father propelled him to where he is. We are sure that the legacy will continue. He should be spending more time with his grand kids too and imparting more information.

They don’t teach this stuff in school and yet it’s the most important aspect of career guidance or even entrepreneurship. When asked about role models—few mention grand parents and instead focus on strangers they never met. Strangers with no knowledge of your family DNAs.

 You too could be a grand parent or will be one in future, the question is what active role are you undertaking so that future generations will be inspired?