Our forum was at Bindura University of Science Education for a public lecture titled ‘Adding Entrepreneurship Value to your college acquired skills’ 2 weeks ago. We feature below the presentation for download.
We would like to thank the college authorities and the students who attended. We hope you will make follow ups on the action points.
Africa always lag behind when it comes to technological advancements. Just ask yourself what is the latest technology development from the continent that has shaped the world and adopted across the world?
Most of the new technologies are developed in the west and Africa comes last in adoption. Why does Africa come last? Slow economic development and a small viable market. In Africa foreign investors get a good return on investment when they invest in North Africa, West Africa (Nigeria), East Africa ( Kenya) and Southern Africa (RSA).
There has never been a case where new technology was first introduced on the continent on countries with small populations such as Mauritania, Djibout, Swaziland, Botswana or Namibia.
In Sub Sahara it all starts with Nigeria because of its huge population, Kenya due to its strategic location and lastly South Africa. He rest of the continent follows suit.
For tech opportunities, its therefore important to follow latest developments in the west and implementation schedule for the rest of our continent.
What is important is the developed world has gone digital and there is a fight to win technological wars. China is emerging as a force to reckon with and now competing with western powers in the area of 5G.
What opportunities exist for SADC Citizens?
South Africa is sending experts in various fields to India where the buzz word is Fourth Industrialisation. Everyone is talking about 4IR, radios, televisions, newspapers and even billboards.
SADC like in the past, there is little discussions around the area and once more,we will play the catch up game!
The 4IR Value Chain
Artificial Intelligence
Block chain system integration
Internet of things
Cyber security
Cloud computing
Additive manufacturing
Augmented Reality
Big data
In all of the key components listed above, there plenty of opportunities with a lot to be discovered…no one knows them yet but trigger systems or devices will come like the smart phone which opened new doors for a lot of opportunities.
Whoever imagined that there were going to be almost free phone calls? How about rural areas being connected to the internet and social media? Whoever imagined that traditional banks would take a hit from mobile money platforms?
Did you dismiss crypto currencies when they hit our shores? They are going nowhere-here to stay and eventually replace central banks. Impact of social media on newspapers? The music industry? A lot of disruptions are on the way and in Hongkong they have licenced their first virtual bank. Who will own the first virtual bank in South Africa?
Who will open the first drone services company in Malawi? Who will provide Big Data services and support in Lesotho? Who will open an Augmented Reality theme park in Zimbabwe? Who is providing cyber security services in Namibia?
A lot of new industries are going to come up and a lot of others folding as well. The UBER and Taxify business models are creating tonnes of opportunities in South Africa. New thousands of jobs created and early adopters enjoying their time in the sunshine…disaster waiting for traditional taxi industries.
The shock collapse of a top British firm Thomas Cook sent shivers down the spine of many across the globe…there is more coming! Disruptors are targeting every field or sector-agriculture, mining, transport, tourism, financial services, education, government systems etc
4IR Skills
Many are of the view that computer coding will be a key skill and a lot of parents are enrolling their kids for the courses. However a leading professor from a South African University challenged this. In fact the key skills needed do not necessarily depend on coding but cover the following;
So here is your checklist
Are you following tech developments across the globe?
Are you continuously developing your skills and aligning them with the tech future?
Do you ever discuss 4IR with friends, colleagues or your network?
At your company or in your business, do you have a 4IR compliant strategy?
We are a prolific producer of small business material. Our members are always discussing various business issues affecting them. From Agric, Mining, Digital Marketing, Poultry, Financial Literacy, Young Entrepreneurs, Dog Breeding, Moz Opportunities to Hybrid Paw Paws…we are a rich forum of business ideas exchange. Every hour, discussions are going on helping to inspire our members. At any given time more than 50 views are on our website checking out material posted. Total number of views of our website posts totalling more than 600.000.
In addition to more than 30 active Whatsapp groups, our FB posts attract up to 100.000 views per month.
Our next move:
Converting our stories or material into short videos. An efficient way of assisting our members. No need to go through lengthy posts or discussions. You just watch a 3 minute summary of key points and you are covered. An initiative from our Young Entrepreneurs Groups…..the youngsters got energy plus a lot of innovation.
Expect a Youtube Channel with tonnes of our videos. We are going to start very slow and by end of next year, we will have followed our website model.
Benefits for our members:
Promoting your businesses beyond the forum. Member features and discussions helping you to reach out to thousands of others across the globe.
Access to funding: Do you have viable small projects in need of scale up and funding? If your story is not known….then it’s tough to attract funding. But if many see your successful small poultry project…they see the chickens, chicken runs, the professional way you do your business-then your funding needs are solved.
Access to markets: Some time back we trained a lady from Marondera, the lady produces great hand made bags…extremely talented but no skills in marketing. The platform will enable people like her to reach out to a lot of clients locally and abroad.
A lot of opportunities for the forum members with this new initiative. Lets see how this pans out.
In 2013 a group of online entrepreneurs came together and asked themselves the following questions;
We had difficulty in getting answers to the above and decided to set up this forum. Looked at various business Facebook pages and realised the only business was adverts. Dump adverts and more adverts and disappear.
Our model
We set up a Facebook page and started sharing free business information
In order to create a strong community, we also set up various Whatsapp platforms linked to Facebook
We linked the above platforms to our website and compiled information for easy access or reference.
The result is an active forum where information is shared by our various members inspiring more than 50.000 members.
The bonus was the compilation of our first book on business opportunities which unfortunately leaked resulting in more than free 400.000 copies circulating last year.
Our model was inspired by a Japanese concept named Mirasapo whereby entrepreneurs get resources digitally.
Our website is the richest platform for entrepreneurs in the country with more than 650 articles read more than 600.000 times and at any given point in time-there are more than 50 viewers.
Projects
It’s not easy to bring thousands of people together and make them collaborate. It takes years to build relationships and the good thing is after 6 years, we are proud of the engagements on the forum. Everyday hundreds of topics are being discussed in our various forums. Many are getting inspired, more resources shared and more businesses created or improved. Well done to Zimbabwe, our business model bearing fruit.
Business Tours: We do not like to strictly remain online and as a result we do have on the ground activities and one of them is business tours. We have successfully conducted 3 tours to Mozambique (Tete) and managed to unlock opportunities in the little known Tete which is 350km away from Harare. Zimbabweans rarely talk positive stories about Mozambique and yet South Africans are grabbing every available opportunity. Imagine fruits and vegetables being transported from South Africa-passing through Zimbabwe and Mutoko to Mozambique and yet Mutoko farmers cannot literally walk to Mozambique and sell their produce? They prefer travelling to Harare!
Regional Trainings: Opportunities abound beyond the borders-plenty of them! What is it that Zimbabweans can do better than the rest of the world? Our arts and crafts industry! No one can play the mbira instrument like we do. Noone can do sculpture the way we do…not even in advanced economies. So in 2017, we introduced an initiative that created a buzz around SADC. When you invite entrepreneurs to fund their own transport and accommodation to come to Harare from Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi and South Africa-then you have done something really special. The result is we conducted trainings in Harare and followed them across the region. We know all the provinces of South Africa. We had our programs featured on foreign televisions and newspapers. We had governments adopting our programs in Malawi (Disabled persons training) and South Africa (Mpumalanga & Limpopo women trainings). The ANC adopted some of our trainings during the run up to the 2019 elections. In 2018, we adopted training from South Africa and cascaded it to Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Malawi. There is high uptake for our trainings across the region and they know when Zimbabweans come, they deliver! The good thing is we have created a distribution network for Zimbabwean products.
In Zimbabwe, there are fewer uptakes of our trainings but regionally, we are adored and even got an award in Durban for the impact we had in Kwazulu Natal province.
Crowdfunding Activities: We created innovative consolidated adverts on our Facebook platforms which attract an average of 8.000 views (down from 15.000 due to data costs in the country). So great platform for access to markets. We also authored a digital marketing book that takes into account our experiences across the region. Our Digital Marketing Group cements our objective of access to markets.
Our major challenge has been access to capital. How do our members access capital from the forum? We considered the relationships built over the last 6 years and invited our members to a crowdfunding initiative. Overwhelming response and a company formation is in the pipeline with our last meeting coming over the weekend. Members are pooling resources together and yes this agriculture season we will be on the ground. We will review results around March next year and upscale the projects including other areas such as mining.
Our board is composed of 10 members based locally and abroad. They have various skills covering law, accounting, education, medicine, engineering, human resources and NGO management.
We have also opened a South African group which now has 62.000 members with an enormous rate of growth of 1.000 new members every week. Not as effective as our local one but we will get there in a few years time.
Expect 2 new books by end of year, Zim follow up and our debut for South Africans. Most of our Whatsapp groups are full but every month new ones are opened to absorb new members. Regionally, we have an interesting initiative coming early next year.
Apologies for a long write up but we thought we needed our new members to appreciate what the forum is all about. In terms of opportunities information, no one in Zimbabwe can complain-a website, books and a vibrant forum. In terms of markets, we are getting there and the same applies to access to capital.
Credit goes to our thousands of members who actively participate on the forum sharing their experiences and advice.Information shared makes the forum a research institute of small businesses in Zimbabwe.
Little is known about the Bitcoin by many Africans. It is still a new concept and will take several years before many appreciate it. This our simplified version as we try to define it.
In the 80s they had type writers…how about now?
In the 70s and 80s they had vinyl records, then came cassettes…how about now?
In the past there were banks only for financial transactions…then came ATM and mobile money?
What is more? Selfless driving cars now on the roads, unmanned shops etc
Catch the drift?
Technology is changing at a blistering pace ….in Japan they noe have some robot receptionists! The future is tech, tech and more tech. Millions of new users are now being connected to the internet and the population is roughly 4 billion and rising.
So hapana anoita nharo….tech tech and more tech.
In comes the Bitcoin which is more like Ecocash in the sense that you cant see it and its digital.
Created in 2009, bitcoin is an all-digital “cryptocurrency” that doesn’t pay attention to banks, governments, or international borders. There’s a cap of 21 million bitcoins—so inflation is not possible.
Who created it? a mysterious person or group known only as Satoshi Nakamoto
System behind it: Research more about Block Chain Technology. By using blockchain technology, the inventor(s) of bitcoin () gave their currency the ability to exist without some sort regulatory oversight.
Every person who participates in the bitcoin network—everyone who buys with, sells in, or owns bitcoins—has their own copy of the bitcoin blockchain.
Since bitcoin is a purely person-to-person digital currency model, anyone using bitcoin can make fast, secure, low-fee transactions whenever they want, to anyone in the world.
Wherecan you use it? It’s a universal currency although still to get more acceptance in Africa. We always lag behind but in advanced economies such as SA, Egypt and Nigeria….there are more people aware and participating.
In other countries they have ATMs that dispense cash to assist bitcoin users who want to exchange it for cash. Folks are using bitcoins to buy houses, cars, pay fees etc
Bitcoin I mari yemumhepo se Ecocash…haibatike nemawoko.
Leading global accounting bodies such as CIMA and ACCA are talking about it and as for CIMA, there are block chain courses which cost GBP 460 for qualified members. Its also the buzz word for auditors and actuarial scientists. So no going back!
Like all new products, they start slow with fewer takers and the price is initially low but rises with time. When the first telephone had a few people connected, its value was less but as more people connected, its value shot up.
When Strive started Econet, it was a small network but with time it made the founder a billionaire, When Facebook had a few users, again the value was less and making Zuckerberg one of the richest men on earth in less than a decade.
In follow up posts we will cover its price, advantages and disadvantages. The scams around it and more importantly-the opportunities.
Advice? Invest in research, follow news, developments and discussions. Don’t put money yet in something you have not grasped-you will be scammed!
Bitcoin is the future, we have no option.
When you finished Ordinary level or Advanced level, how did you spend your free time? For most Africans, its time wasted but for other communities such as Indians; it is time for their young ones to get inductions in the real world of business operations.
They get an overview of the real business experience and later on go back to college with a competitive advantage over peers who would have been idle.
For college leavers, the question is what options exist besides the tough and ever dwindling job market? If it is entrepreneurship-what is the starting point? How many college graduates possess business identification skills? How many studied and practiced digital marketing?
Inorder to prepare young ones with skills they hardly get from formal education, our forum will be conducting a week long intensive boot camp to equip them with trending entrepreneurship skills and preparation for the job market in December.
Objectives:
Bonus
Duration: One working week
Venue: Rokpa Centre, No 34 Quendon, Monavale, Harare
For registration do send an app to our Admin on +263774081808|773055063
Legend has it that a man visited a remote village and told villagers that he could buy monkeys for $50 each. The villagers could not believe the good news till he bought the first 20 monkeys.
Everyone ‘saw that he was genuine’ and started hunting for monkeys for sale. Huge returns were realised till the forests were almost empty of monkeys.
The visitor came back again (they always do) and offered a higher price of $100. The villagers worked hard, waking up as early as 2:00am scouring the forests and mountains. Only a few managed to get them and selling at the premium price.
Then the visitor increased the price bait to $200 and promised to return the following month. A friend of the visitor came to the village selling monkeys for $150 and the villagers bought all of the monkeys in anticipation of the selling price of $200.
Then the unthinkable happened – the buyer who had promised $200 never returned leaving villagers to count their losses.
This is how ponzi schemes are designed 101. Citizens minding their own business witness ‘visitors’ who create opportunities from ordinary products or services. Those who grab opportunities swallow the bait igniting a scramble -who doesn’t want money? When the visitors have made a targeted profit, they perform a disappearing act leaving many with huge losses.
Does the Chihuta business model come to mind?
How about MMM business model?
Can we add the Sack Potato model?
How about some network marketing business model?
New churches or religions?
The forex market scam
A few buyers come up with a target amount of forex they need from the street. They craft a strategy in phases.
The first phase: Currency rates slowly go up.
The second phase: The rate of increment spikes moderately.
Like the villagers and the monkey business-everyone rushes in in the second phase. Meanwhile, the buyers have not reached their target. So they increase the rate for the final time. The whole nation panics, a scramble to buy goods kicks in, some move to the market to trade forex.
Targeted forex amount reached-the market then crashes with the prices of monkeys going rock bottom. After all-monkeys have little value in the village!
Check rates movement around September to October every year or bi-annually!
Now some youngsters in the village have mastered the technique. Whenever the visitors come, they gladly participate in the monkey hunting business. They fetch a targeted number of monkeys, sell and then return to their ordinary business in the village. They don’t wait for the second buyer or seller to come but leave unsuspecting new villagers to participate in the scam. When new villagers burn their fingures, they will learn the hard way and some swear never to hunt for monkeys ever again.
With time, the visitors now know that villagers are trying to beat them to their game and up the ante. This is not a win win situation; someone has to be scammed-visitors always WIN.
Who changed money at the rate of 1:13?
Who moved in when the rate hit 1:17? The first bait…
Who rushed in when the rate hit 1:20? The second bait…
Who gate crashed when the rate hit 1:25? The final bait….
In Shona we have a saying ‘Kana kangoma koririsa? Now the rate has crashed (they always do)….the visitors are nowhere to be found and villagers will have to lick and nurse their wounds. Its game over! Elders in the village will be providing counsel saying we told you so dint we? Takabva neko kumhunga…Ndamba kuudzwa?
Next year, there will be new youngsters oblivious of the game or will defy advice from the elders of the village and the cycle will continue ad infinitum!
Next time, the visitors may even come with a different bait so as to overcome resistance from enlightened villagers.
Lessons from the Bitcoin Bubble
Did you witness the Bitcoin value shooting up to US$20.000 in December 2017? Then it crashed to US$4.000? Hundreds of millions were lost in the process and sadly its not documented. The only documentation that exists is that of Zimbabweans who lost US$6 million to the ponzi MMM scheme. No statistics exist of how much street traders lost due to the currency volatility witnessed over the past few days. The absence of statistics or lessons leant means there will always be ample room for more such schemes.
Had the villagers ignored the monkey buyer, they would not have lost out. The monkey buyer knew that fast money or fast returns will always attract multitudes. Whilst village elders will be resisting, the young generation wants quick returns
Final word
Be wary of visitors. The first visitors on African Soil were traders and merchants. They provided the bait and locals swallowed line, hook and sinker…the first phase. They kept on coming with all sorts of goodies developing more trust…second phase. In the final phase they came with guns and took over ownership of all African resources!
From our third upcoming book: Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans 2020 Edition.
The notorious January disease has been at the centre of wiping out thousands of cattle across the country and sadly scientists have failed to come with a cure. Once your cow is affected, it has been a one way path to death. Some farmers have lost all of their cattle and some a significant number.
The good news is someone seems to have found a possible cure and we share below advice from an unknown farmer and hope this may potentially lead to a possible cure of the notorious disease responsible for the loss of millions of dollars across Zimbabwe.
Hello farmers. Iam reporting back to the group about the outcome of January disease experiment that I was coordinating with guys on the ground at a relatives’ farm and surrounding areas. We had 10 affected cattle or seriously sick from the notorious tickbone Theiliosis. We isolated the infected animals and kept them in a pen. They had very high temperatures and most of them couldn’t stand up or walk. We injected butechem 20 ml each and limoxin 26 ml each . No water for 30 hrs but provided stock feed…we had beef survival from gain.
We also used old blanket to lift the animals each for about 45 min every 4 hrs during the day, those that couldn’t get up on their own. To allow blood circulation.
After 1 day some started feeding a few mouthfuls. we also had green grass cut and given to them. Then the 7 recovered quite faster with just the 1st dose of 20+26 ml butechem/amoxlin.
The remaining 3 had a 2nd shot of 20ml each butechem after 48 hrs instead of the 72 hrs. We also gave them only 2l of water each on day 3.
1 recovered leaving 2
The remaining 2 become blind totally, blind. I remembered that we had discussed about how to treat blindness in this groan, I advised my friends to buy tetracycline.
They injected 2ml in each eye lid and the balance of the dose the usual way.into the body.
They injected again after the prescribed period this time not in eye lids. We also used raw damba on 1 of the 2, not sure the English name. They crashed it and put 5 drops of the juice in each eye. This was done every 5 days and it gained partial sight after 2 weeks. And total eye sight after 2.5 weeks
The other 1 we repeated 2ml of tetracycline again and the balance we administered in the body.
After 5 weeks yesterday I got the positive results..the pregnant cow has gotten full sight back.
This experiment was done by ordinary people no vet official involved or vet Dr. What we don’t know is how safe are those 10 but they are completely ok.
That’s why I was so quiet many calls were done and a dedicated team of 5 guys on the ground. And to group members who shared some formulas we used-Thanks a lot guys , we can win against this theiliosis.
So what are the biggest risks under the sun? In what way will they affect you? For entrepreneurs risks also means opportunities. For risk managers however it means you need to be on the look out. If your risk register does not include the 20 risks noted below, then you are missing out. Your organisation will soon be affected and just dont be caught unaware.
Some of the risks are already playing out in various regions across the globe and most of you can relate to them. The risks are compiled by the World Economic forum and we feature them below in ascending order;
Some opportunities are hidden in language and with most of our members being English speakers, the risk is losing out on opportunities from Franch and Portuguese speaking countries.
Whenever a country undertakes privatisation, this is a big move which should not be ignored. Privatisation unlocks value with most entities doing well thereafter. We have witnessed this even in countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Now the second richest country in SADC is going through a privatisation programme and below we feature an article which may be of interest to you especially locals, foreigners and the diaspora.
14 August 2019| Angola
Angola’s Privatisation Programme (ProPriv) predicts that most of the 195 state-owned or partially state-owned companies will be divested by 2020, the Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury Vera Daves de Sousa, said on Tuesday in Luanda.
The coordinator of the technical group of the inter-ministerial national commission for the implementation of the Privatisation Programme, said that by the end of this year 80 companies would be covered, in 2020 it will be 91, 20 companies will be added in 2021 and the remaining four in 2022.
The outlined schedule shows that of the 32 national reference companies four will be sold in 2019, 18 in 2020, seven in 2021 and the final three in 2022.
The most well-known companies involved in this process are state oil company Sonangol, diamond company Endiama and airline TAAG, the BCI, BAI, BCGA and Banco Económico banks, as well as financial companies ENSA Seguros and the Angola Debt and Securities Exchange (Bodiva).
The programme also includes agro-industrial units Aldeia Nova and Biocom, textiles companies, Textang II, Satec and África Têxtil, cement plants Nova Cimangola and Secil do Lobito, as well as the Cuca, Eka and Ngola breweries and construction company Mota-Engil Angola.
The telecommunication companies that will be included in the Privatisation Programme are Unitel (in which MSTelecom has a 20% stake), MS Telecom itself, Net One, Multitel, Angola Telecom, TV Cabo Angola, Angola Cables, Angolan postal company ENCTA, Angola Comunicações e Sistemas (ACS) and telephone directory company ELTA.
Other companies listed for privatisation are Sonangol’s airline, Sonair, airport management company Sociedade de Gestão de Aeroportos and Sonangalp, a fuel distribution company that is 51% owned by Sonangol. (Macauhub)