Diaspora Matters

Our forum has now reached a great milestone! We now have 60,000 members in Zimbabwe and 85,000 in South Africa. Awesome numbers as we continue with our thrust of assisting entrepreneurs with free opportunities resources as well as helping them to network for business success.

We have over 30 Whatsapp groups which have been in existence for over 6 years and this week we introduced new groups which are suburb specific.

What are the advantages of these groups?

Convenience: You connect with entrepreneurs in your area and therefore saving on transport costs or marketing costs

Reduced risks of scams: Most scams on the internet are people who stay far away from their victims. So close proximity means reduced risks of people who scam others and disappear.

School runs and rides sharing: No need to waste resources on fuel when you stay in the same suburb going the same direction. Members should simply share rides and reduce on costs. The same applies to school runs which can be an inconvenience to many a parent.

Crowdfunding: Members can link up and harness resources for startups. They can also enjoy benefits of economies of scale in procurement or renting of premises.

Our latest groups

*🇿🇼🏦ZBIN Area Groups*

Marondera🚁
https://chat.whatsapp.com/HV9auNWmmmK8OV1kuQbMFU

Waterfalls/Hatfield🛫
https://chat.whatsapp.com/CPtzyW1rET76B7tbcK2Xpr

Harare North🚇
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BfwdnETfIrZ1noDKm1kC6d

Ruwa🚘
https://chat.whatsapp.com/IknWcPKhXPK5uAtkF91QWM

Norton🚤
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BfaMrp5Icj7Hj6ozLmrmhl

Harare West🚔
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KyYMoHHU4nIILefEuP4QFt

Kuwadzana🏇🏼

Countries

Zambia🇿🇲
https://chat.whatsapp.com/F0GzqYlQQWkJGevqtpbsmF

Botswana🇧🇼
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EYAaV1WY6QIHXF9V73UcS9

Malawi🇲🇼
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KUh6lk3vZ7qL1pdoZt3tFm

Namibia🇳🇦
https://chat.whatsapp.com/D93xDY0lBsD646BvUGHa9s

Mozambique🇲🇿
https://chat.whatsapp.com/IRiDR0l1XXyFzUY2yjlNkh

Zim has an estimated population of 5.5m Whatsapp users. This number does not include diaspora figures. If we add them, then our figures could be above 9m. This makes the study of Whatsapp a crucial topic as part of the Digital Marketing Strategy. It is our most popular Social Media platform.

The study of this topic includes Zimbabwean culture-What works here and you may not find it documented anyway unless you hold a discussion and getting the experiences of hundreds of users.

Challenges with Whatsapp Marketing

Unlike Facebook, there is no one central place to enable one to reach out to all 5.5m users in the country as they are all scattered in thousands of groups.

Fewer than 5% Zimbabweans appreciate Graphical Designing and the immense benefits it brings to Digital Marketing.

Little appreciation of the difference between selling and spamming. For instance repeatedly sending the same ad to the same group!

Little knowledge of the benefits of Business Whatsapp

Opportunities Discussion

Entertainment: Why do people log on to Whatsapp Groups? The answer is entertainment so if you are advertising on the platform, keep your Ads short, sweet, eye candy and containing all key information.

Canva: Canva is the most common Graphical Design App for the few Zimbabweans who appreciate the field. Found on Google Play Store or www.canva.com. For starters this app=Money.

Timing: When are you posting your ads? Study the best time to post ads

Linking your app: Can you link Whatsapp to your website, Facebook and other platforms? How is it done and the opportunities?

Business Whatsapp: Zimbabweans deriving a lot of benefits from the use of Business Whatsapp

Complex Issues

What if your ad or ad photos are stolen? Use water marks? What if they are cropped out?

How do you deal with competitors who join your group and start competing with you?

Should you create an app group where only the admin can post? What are the advantages and disadvantages?

What if everyone in the group is selling? Can you make business from sellers?

Experience Factor

We covered information you are hardly going to find anywhere else because Digital Marketing is a new field. You are not going to find a Professor in the field locally….but you will only find seasoned experts who are continuously learning every time.

Assignment: Task for first timers-develop own ad on Canva and share tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will cover Facebook Marketing in detail and sharing winning tricks used by members. This becomes the last series shared outside our 3 groups.

One for the road: The power of relationships in business especially REFERRALS, REFERRALS AND REFERRALS.

Kea leboga

Did you know that many people will be busy during the lockdown? Some will be undertaking formal online studies, some reading books and more. Make sure that by the end of the shutdown you would have acquired new skills. Do not remain the same person you were before the Covid-19 inspired shutdowns.

We are going to be sharing lessons on Digital Marketing on our forums and will create Digital Marketing groups for the lessons. They are coming free of charge and we intend to create a cream of entrepreneurs who will dominate the digital landscape in the coming months.

At the end of the lockdown, you should give yourself a *Certificate in Digital Marketing*

Course Outline©
1) Appreciation of Digital Landscape
2) Developing a Digital Marketing Strategy
3) Digital Marketing Benefits
4) Setting up and managing own website
5) E-Commerce
6) Content Marketing
6) SEO
7) Influencer Marketing
8) Facebook Boosting
9) Whatsapp Advertising
10) Video Marketing
11) Introduction to Graphic Designing

12) Practicals

We asked many entrepreneurs from Trinidad and Tobago, Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Zimbabwe the answers to the quiz below and got a lot of responses with 560 responses in 2 hours from Trinidad and Tobago and hundreds from the rest.

Only 1% got the answer correct and what is the answer? It is 43.

Look at the last man, he has 2 shoes and is also holding 2 cones!

This makes the calculation:

5 (shoe) + 19 ( man+ 2 cones+2 shoes) x cone(2)

We use BODMAS to solve the quiz and remember its additions first before multiplication!

Thank you for participation.

South Africa began its Covid-19 inspired lockdown yesterday and Zimbabwe will begin its own lockdown on the 30^th of March. The rest of other countries in the region expected to follow suit in the coming days. We pray that a solution is found soon to this novel pandemic as it has negatively impacted the world.

So what activities should you be doing during this lockdown?

You have been presented with an opportunity to spend time with your family, time to bond, to discuss with your children about school, career guidance, work-life, health, religion, entrepreneurship and more.

Our forum will be running a number of programs during the lockdown that will cover a lot of entrepreneurship topics. We hope to cover digital marketing, business opportunities in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Entrepreneurship books review, Agricultural Opportunities, Service Sector Opportunities, Upscaling strategies, Pricing, Financial Literacy, Risk Management and more.

We will cover these topics with Facebook live broadcasts on our 2 main Facebook Pages ( South Africa Business Ideas & Network with 84,000 members and the Zim Business Ideas and Network with 56,000 members.

Make sure you follow us and not miss out on this opportunity which will empower thousands of our members.

We hope you stay safe, practice hygiene and social distancing. We urge you to follow formal channels of communication for updates on the pandemic.

God Bless

Have you ever thought about exporting the crops that you grow? Well if you are already growing Tobacco you are already an exporter as more than 95% of the Tobacco grown is exported to China, Europe and the rest of the world. In this article we shall be looking at a more sensitive and lucrative crop export production namely fresh produce export. Some of you are probably wondering what fresh produce is.Perhaps to break it down, fresh produce simply refers to the usually highly perishable vegetables such as tomatoes, peas, lettuce, cabbage, strawberries, green beans etc.

Emmanuel D.N Dube |ZBIN Agronomist

There is a very huge demand for fresh produce particularly in Europe and Zimbabwe is one of the big suppliers of fresh produce into Europe.It is no longer surprising to find fresh produce with the label produced in Zimbabwe in big supermarkets such as Tesco in the UK. The current economic situation in Zimbabwe has not helped either especially when producing for the local market as monetary value is lost quickly. Producing for export is a worthy investment as most contractors will pay the farmer in forex usually the green back (USD) of which the farmer retains approximately 80% of the money in Forex. Clearly this is big business the big question then is,“how do I get into this business as farmer?”. Well below are a few basics that you need to know before you get into the business or rather the requirements.

1. Tenure

The farmer needs to have title to the land/farm. Most contractors will need you to have an offer letter/lease agreement/tittle to the land or some form of authorisation for you to use the farm. This makes sense as no one wants to invest in growing a crop and then at harvest the land is disputed and the contractor losses out financially and reputation wise with their market as they would have failed to deliver as promised.

• Infrastructure

A reliable water source such as a Dam or boreholes. This must be a clean water source; the water samples will be tested to see if they meet the minimum EU requirements for safe use in crop production. This makes sense as these days a lot of water pollution occurs especially in gold panning areas were harmful chemicals such as cyanide are used by illegal miners and water is discarded into the water ways. If contaminated water is used such chemicals can be taken up by the plants and may affect the final consumer of the product. The most ideal type of irrigation is drip irrigation, yes you may get away with the now very popular centre pivot, but disease incidence tends to be much higher when using this type of irrigation. Also most people have the misconception that for one to do intensive horticulture you need a green house, most horticultural crops do very well in open fields especially those not susceptible to frost.

• Certifications

GGAP

This is arguably the most important requirement. When exporting into Europe the basic requirement is the Global Good Agricultural Practice certification (GGAP). Most if not all markets in the EU require every fresh produce produced outside of Europe to have the GGAP certification. What is GGAP certification? This is a certification issued out to a producer (Farm) to signify that they are producing their crop according to international standards. An audit is done by an external auditor usually from South Africa by international organisations such as SGS or NSF among other auditing companies. Auditor will come to your farm and inspect things such as safe chemical storage, health and safety issues of the farm workers etc. Because of the work involved it is always best to higher a consultant who can help you set up and prepare for the audit. You do it once and you do it correctly.

SMETA

In addition to the GGAP certification most markets now also require the producer to be SMETA certified.SMETA stands for Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit. It combines the best practices in the field of corporate social responsibility. SMETA focuseson labour conditions and occupational safety as on environmental standards and ethical business practices. This will give the farmer a competitive edge among other suppliers if they have this certification. NB these are renewed annually.

• Quality…. Quality

Quality is king, Usually I recommend farmers to grow a small hectarage and manage it well in order to produce a high-quality crop. There is no point in growing a large hectarage and produce poor quality which is not exportable or fetches poor prices on the market. Remember farming is a business.

• Consistency

This is were most farmers drop the ball. Most contractors will already have a buyer for your produce before you even put seed into the ground hence the need to be consistent in supply. Reliability is very important, in this business do what ever you can to meet contractual obligations in terms of supply.

• Diversification

A carefully planned out cropping system on your farm will guarantee a constant flow of income. One can also grow for the local market when export windows are closed. Also chose the right crop for your area.

• Labour and capital

Horticulture is labour intensive, if you do not have access to an adequate labour pool consider a small hectarage. To give you an idea when growing fine beans (green beans) you will need approximately 30 -50 people per hectare per day at peak to harvest the crop at the right exportable size. If you miss a day of peaking your crop becomes overgrown and not exportable.

• Market

Getting direct access to the market as an individual is a daunting task and most markets will only deal with suppliers, they have a history with. The best way to get around this is getting all the certifications, capital and a contracting company and grow. Contractor takes care of all the air freight, handlings delivery to market which will all be factored into the price which your product is bought from the farmer, good deal right.

It may seem like a tedious process when looking at the above list, but it is a worthy investment when done properly. The returns are very lucrative especially in this Zimbabwean economy were forex seems to retain value more. Make sure to read the next article covering the different crops that can be grown for the export market and the numbers (capital break down) that are involved as well as the different organisations involved in contract farming for export.

Emmanuel is a qualified Agronomist and development practitionerwith 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

Crowdfarming presents Africa with a lot of opportunities in agriculture. The concept is gaining momentum across the continent especially in Nigera, South Africa and Kenya. The concept involves a lot of people pooling resources and investing in identified projects of common interest. Mot of the people(crowd) usually meet online through digital platforms and follow the following steps;

1. Formation of a company or association
2. Election of leaders or a management body
3. Identifying farming opportunities lease of agreement
4. Identifying land and obtaining
5. Carrying out detailed investment appraisals
6. Contributing funds for projects with a positive net present value
7. Project management and monitoring progress
8. Sharing of profits or losses

Investing in the first project

Members should not try and invest huge sums of money in a project they are doing for the first time because they do not have experience in running a crowdfarming project. Invest large sums, the project fails and this will be the end of it. A short project with a short life span is highly recommended. Try a project with a maximum capital injection of US$2,000 –showcase you ability to manage the project, showcase your ability manage ad get a positive return on investment. This is the litmus test and if it fails…exit the project.

Success factors

• Be wary of unnecessary personality clashes. This can be easily dealt with if there is a constitution
• Engage a consultant to draft corporate governance documents such as constitutions or company registrations.
• If more than 10, an association registration is highly recommended-it’s faster than registering a company.
• Initial funds contributions should go towards the hire of consultants who should prepare documents or registrations within a specified period. Failure to meet deadines should attract penalties or rehire of consultants.
• The longer the registration process takes, the more many will lose interest. The founders of a crowdfarming project should already have draft documents of vision and corporate governance before inviting others.
• Land tenure is tricky especially when there is no documentation. This needs to be secured as fast as possible before commencement. The location of the farm or plot should be close to where members are based.
• Who will be the project manager? Allocating roles to several members is fine but be wary of lack of progress due to no one being accountable for results. This can delay the project or lead to some using own resources. Agree on a contribution that will help motivate the project manager who will report to the management committee. If you can afford a full time manager, the better.
• In all farming ventures, engage experts especially Agronomists. Pay them for researches and advice to reduce risks.
• Communication can be a huge challenge. Reliance of online platforms can take lead to a lot of miscommunication issues. Speak less on Whatsapp groups and arrange for more face to face meetings on a scheduled basis.
• The diaspora highly recommended not to invest funds in less established crowdfarming ventures. Crowdfarming ventures with no experience are high risk-wait and see results first before pouring funds into a new project.

Members Contributions

The concept of crowdfarming is to recruit as many members as possible. Every dollar counts!

If members are leaving the project-this is contrary to the spirit of crowdfarming. Therefore identify several projects and let members choose projects of their interest. At first choose a mix of projects such as animal husbandry and crop farming . For instance broiler rearing, rabbits rearing and crops such as vegetables or maize,

Manage the different interests of members. Some can contribute US$5 per month and some US$100 per month. Identify projects where the lower end and the high end can all fit. If its cattle purchase a cow can have 10 people with each person having a different contribution.

For example 5 people can contribute $400 as follows;

1. John $100
2. Jane $50
3. Peter $30
4. Mary $120
5. Kenneth $100

Profit or losses shared as per individual contribution. This approach ensures the participation of many but is administratively more challenging.

Another option is to have each person buying a cow but the high contributions mean few people will partake in such ventures. The fewer the people, the lesser the effectiveness of crowdfarming.

History to date of crowdfarming in Zimbabwe

A maize farming project in Banket was a disaster. A lot of funds totalling US$100,000 were lost due to funds misappropriation and poor management. UK Diasporans were the biggest losers with some losing up to GBP10.000. Crowdfarming can be a cheap access to funds for fraudsters. Be wary of some who benefit by purchase of inputs and storage. Chibage chakazodyiwa nemombe! A recent case of cattle poisoning is raising question marks on possible funds misuse.

In Manicaland, another crowdfarming project resulted in heavy losses for members. Its important for members to tighten risk management. Come up with budgets in USD but contribute funds when needed, avoid large sums of money being handled by individuals. For instance, if buying fertilisers, contribute funds and purchase them on the same day. Utilise the fertiliser on the same day and avoid storage risks.

Opportunities abound in this multimillion dollar industry but the KEY WORD is transparency! Go for short term projects, give investors their returns back, let them choose to continue and gradually the project will gain prominence and many others will join.

We expect more than a thousand companies to emerge in the coming years. They will be competing to recruit members as well as to showcase who is the most profitable. Who can return the highest per dollar investment?

In Nigeria, their Reserve Bank had to intervene after a lot of financial scandals. Give us feedback on your experience with crowdfarming to date.

Local financial institutions should innovate and come up with schemes that help in crowdfarming. Enabling members to contribute funds and ensuring safe keeping. In South Africa they have facilities for Stokvel initiatives and at the end of 2019, a total of R50 Billion was held in all Stokvel accounts.

The Zim Business Ideas and Network forum has a total membership of 55,000 as of March 2020 and we have attached a document that analysis forum activity for the month of February 2020.

Our eagerly awaited business book is now available. A rich resource book for entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe, it focuses on business opportunities. Where are the opportunities in Zimbabwe as well as across the region? How do we tap into them? What are the skills required to explore them?

Africans have traditionally suffered from not writing own histories and experiences and as a result, we rely on books written elsewhere. A follow up book to our first one we published in 2018, the book covers experiences of our members, researches and tours conducted in Zimbabwe and beyond the borders. There is an addition of important forum contacts dotted across the globe.

Buyers of the book are added to our subscribed list for the year allowing them access to follow up books, resources, video profiling and access to our meetings for presentations and marketing of goods.

It costs USD15/RTGS equivalent and is available at Rokpa Centre, No 34 Quendon Road, Monavale Harare. Contact number +263 773 055 063 or app number +263 774 081808.

Who ever imagined the impact of the Covid-19? That many borders would be closed? How about the crash in world markets? We are talking of trillions of dollars lost due to this epidemic…it will take decades to recover.

To my risk management colleagues, did you see this coming? In your strategic documents, risk registers, did you cover this?

To accountants, when you were coming up with budgets, did you factor in the corona virus impact? Was your scenario analysis perfect?

Actuarial scientists, did your risk modelling factor in possible epidemics that can shut down world markets?

To students of accounting at college, did lecturers cover this? Is it in the syllabus?

I like the World Economic Forum and they captured the top 20 risks in the world. Someone was paid hefty amounts for compiling the list. We are talking of the top risk managers in the world from the best universities. How come they left out the corona virus?

Where is the problem with risk management?

Its mostly a closed profession made up of finance folks…

The finance folks have little knowledge of other sectors such as health, how disease outbreaks can negatively impact social and economic spheres.

Who has been following the locusts doing marathon runs from East Africa towards the Southern Region? Is the profession trekking this? What is the possible financial impact?

In hindsight, perhaps when the virus hit Italy, this was a big red flag but then this was a virus, they spread with lightning speed…

Perhaps it’s a new era of globalisation, we are experiencing an epidemic in a globalised world…we are learning in the process!

Question now is, how reliable is risk management in a globalised world? Unfortunately old practices, knowledge and skills becoming redundant.

A risk management professional now needs to have balanced skills…finance is no longer enough.

You have to read medical journals, engineering too, follow environmental issues and more. Trek problems building up in Paraguay or Taiwan and possible viral impact across the globe.

I cannot even locate the Wuhan Province, had never heard about it but what happened thousands of kilometres away now has a direct impact on us.

In Zimbabwe we need health professionals to work together with risk management professionals-we can no longer rely on one profession for risk mitigation and control. Sadly the culture in Zim is each profession works alone.

The concern is after the corona virus, what next? Is the disease man made? If yes, what stops the manufacturers from celebrating and introducing another deadly one? Do we know enough about this disease?