Diaspora Matters

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;

1. Unemployment or underemployment
2. Fiscal crises
3. Failure of national governance
4. Energy price shock
5. Profound social instability
6. Failure of financial mechanism or institution
7. Failure of critical infrastructure
8. Cyberattacks
9. Interstate conflict
10. Terrorist attacks
11. Unmanageable inflation
12. State collapse or crisis
13. Failure of urban planning
14. Asset bubble
15. Large-scale involuntary migration
16. Illicit trade
17. Data fraud or theft
18. Extreme weather events
19. Natural catastrophes
20. Water crisis

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.

Most companies to be privatised in Angola will be sold in 2020

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)

For youngsters finishing college one of the areas you need to explore is blogging and below we feature some of the reasons.

1. Show Your Expertise

We have a lot of talent in Zimbabwe or the world at large that has gone untapped or showcased. We also have a lot of people going up their academic ladders even to PHD levels but most of these people still aren’t sharing with the world what they know best. The only thing they have to show is just a gown and a certificate hung up on a wall. I still find some other experts and educated guys who have spent so much time trying to submit their articles in the private media, but most of the times they get rejected or are told to revise their work. Then I ask myself if it is really worth it if I can build my platform then capitalize on it.  This does not apply to the educated ones only but also to anyone who is an expert in a certain field, or passionate about a certain area that you want to share the expertise with the world. The internet gives you unlimited opportunity to get your message right there into the world.

Maybe you so much interested in a certain area, be it cars, fashion, fitness, health, money, blogging, politics, technology etc. then what are you waiting for? Go for it now and start blogging about it. In fact blogging has been made very easy today you can get access to various Youtube tutorials or even blog posts or even ask some blogging experts to take you through the journey.

• Bulid Your Network

There is a common adage that says, ‘Your network is your net worth’ and believe you me we living in a world where who you know matters most. Through blogging I have managed to connect with some great men and women from all over the world. I have connected with some great international musicians and creative from all Africa and beyond and did some projects and interviews together. One of them we met last year when he came for the Zim Hip Hop Summit 2018, that was way after we had talked before over the phone and had done some works together online. Some of them I’m still to meet them and everyday my network is expanding. I occasionally get emails from international bloggers and content creators asking to have their articles featured on one of my other blogs

So let’s say you blog about finance, then it means you get to network with other finance bloggers and also your audience of which most of the times they would be people in your niche. To expand your network you can also read, share and comment on other blogs in your industry. The greatest hack to build a great network is to give without expecting anything in return, in fact to give more than you receive. Remember people are just attracted to people who give them something, so things like free e-books, great blog posts and even free giveaways will act like a magnet and expand your network.

• Distinguish Yourself & Build Your Brand

As a blogger, you generally have an added advantage over non-bloggers mainly because sometimes you appear to know more stuff than none bloggers. Most bloggers also are influencers in their own niches and people tend to follow their advice, analyses, reports, trends etc and many a time they even quoted by other bloggers. For business, there is a general inclination towards those that blog than those that don’t. Consumers view those that blog as more knowledgeable than those that don’t, so what are you waiting for? If there is one thing that can distinguish you from another person, that is the amount and quality of information you know and the easiest way to let the world know that you know something is definitely through blogging. This is mainly because blogging is very cheap and comes with immense opportunities. I want you to know that blogging is not an over-night success game and if you really looking for microwave success then please I beg you, ‘Don’t try it please’. If you’re going to blog about a subject, you need to KNOW YOUR STUFF.

This means you sometimes have to go out of your lane, researching and gathering content plus the immense effort and time required to put up a quality post. I remember my first times blogging, spending sleepless nights trying to put up one single post but that was worth it. I managed to develop myself, work under pressure, manage my time, articulate my thoughts and message. Remember practice makes perfect and I’m still working on my 10 000 hours. Again a look at some great brands like Jeff Bullas who specializes in Content and Digital Marketing,

Joel Brown of Addicted 2 Success that specializes in Motivational content, Janet Machuka specializes in Digital Marketing, Fitness Bae specializing in Fitness. All these guys have built great brands that extend beyond their personalities and they are capitalizing and monetizing on that.

• Increase Your Market & Reach

According to Hubspot, “53% of marketers say blogging is their top content marketing priority.”53% is a huge number, and the question could be, are you part of that large group, if not then what are you waiting for? The underlying reason is basically that they have seen its immense benefits and I don’t want you to miss these too. When you generate good content, search .come to your blog and pages and this means more leads which you can then covert to customers. Also when the content is good, people tend to share it reaching more and more unimaginable numbers. 94% of people share blog content because they think it might be useful to other people. (Source: nymarketing.com) To enjoy these matrices, you have to optimize on quality content. A blog being an online presence is there on the web 24/7 meaning someone is broadcasting your message all the time. Even when you asleep or on holiday people can still go view your site and read your posts, like and share them or even participate in some Call to Actions (CTA) thereby harvesting prospects and increasing your database.Companies that published 16 or more blog posts per month got 4.5X the leads than companies that published 4 or lessmonthly posts. (Source: Hubspot)

• Make money

Now I come to the area that I’m often asked by most people, ‘Zvinemari here?’ and I always calmly respond, “Try it”. Believe you me, this thing is a multi-billion dollar one, but as highlighted before it is not an over-night success and always the game, the world always rewards the best. There are many ways of making money online from sponsored posts, selling adverts, affiliate links, speaking engagements, selling books and courses etc. I will have to dedicate a whole blog post or series of posts dedicated to how you can make money online especially through blogging. Another quick way to make money through blogging for your business is to include your products and put up an e-commerce platform on your blog and website pages. If it is a services industry, you can also include some of your services on separate pages and also include booking or contact pages to let prospects get in touch and place orders.

By Tinashe Bonde and article originally published on blog www.coachtinashe.co.zw

Africans just love farming! Give them land and support and they will do wonders- after all farming is the oldest entrepreneurship sector on the continent. Of course there are challenges in terms of access to latest technology and others such as access to capital, markets and other resources. So from our 50,000 strong online community, we advertised for those interested in crowdfunding and the response was overwhelming!

Crowdfarming is the future of farming on the continent as it involves members interested in pooling resources together to enjoy economies of scale and other benefits. One of our forum admins offered the use of his farm to the ZBIN community and technically the forum members now own a piece of land.

Last Suturday witnessed a small group of our members touring the farm located in Beatrice about 37 kilometres from Harare and what an eye opener!

Our proposal for the initiative is the formation of a company wholly owned by interested members and the next proposal is brainstorming on a horticulture business idea which will be conducted by an independent business consultant.

Once this is done we will review the business plan and then contribute funds for the project. Shared resources means we reduce the risk of failure and the pooling of resources means that capital will nolonger be a hurdle in farming! So this is the biggest buzz on our forums and we believe only the sky is the limit.

We are not recruiting too many new members for logistical purposes. We will come and invite more once the project becomes a success and then we will scale it up across the country.

Talk of the power of unity!

Its not looking good in South Africa for foreign truck drivers as they are facing daily harassment and attacks on the roads. Locals especially in KwaZulu Natal are pushing their leaders to take drastic actions of banning all foreign drivers and replacing them with locals.

Only a daily basis, truck drivers are being targeted with a number of deaths recorded and unrecorded by reported on a weekly basis. Matters are coming to a head next week on 2nd September 2019 when an industrial action has been called by locals giving all foreign drivers to stay off the road. This has a huge impact on the transportation of goods in South Africa and the region.

In response, foreign drivers have also come up with a counter move by participating on an industrial action starting on Friday this week and there is a high possibility of border or major high way blockades. If you are travelling this week and the next week one, take into consideration possible disruptions on the high ways.

Advocacy pleas from the foreign truck drivers.

SADC governments to conduct high level negotiations to safeguard the security of drivers and their cargo.

The Zambia High Commission in South Africa has already issued a warning to their citizens on the issue, more governments should do the same.

The issue has the potential to spark xenophobic violence and cause more harm to citizens and regional trade. There is need for high level intervention to this fast deteriorating situation or the opportunity cost will be high.

Lorraine Guyo is one of the most influential ladies in Zimbabwe in 2019. A beautiful young lady who was propelled to stardom through Social Media. Her profile has been on the rise thanks to skits produced and directed by her former boyfriend Thomas Chizhange who is the founder of Zimbabwe’s Facebook Page of the year, Thomas Chizhanje and Friends.

Grey Contract

Thomas Chizhanje carried out a lot of work for Lorraine in sponsoring her startups and both parties agreed that he was going to recoup his costs once her career took off. Typical of most startups, trouble started when they received close to US$700.00 from the monetised Youtube channel and sponsors.

Then the couple split leading to controversies regarding the share of funds. Thom then took his money back without agreement and now Lorraine is crying foul. She wants her monies back in full and is claiming her ex boyfriend stole his money.

Sounds familiar?

This is a common story of startups, you have financial and other resources challenges at the first and enter into informal relationships or partnerships and trouble starts when your business starts to take off. All sorts of messy legal stuff start to crop up and some can be costly or leave your brand in tatters.

Who is putting funds into your project? Get a formal contract.

Who is volunteering? Get a formal contract for the contribution.

Someone partnering with you? Get a formal contract to protect yourself in future.

Falling in love with a business partner? Disaster in the making, when the relationship turns sour, you will have huge bills to pay.

Our forum legal contributor, Namatirai Ruzvidzo has posted a number of legal advice on the forum with some of them already on this site. Do look forward to more useful legal advice on the forum.

Did you read our last book titled Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans? We covered plenty of opportunities including some researches and interviews. One of the opportunities we covered in the agriculture chapter was beekeeping. Look for the book and read on page 35. Below we feature one of the viral posts in our forums concerning beekeeping;

Yesterday l met a 24 year old guy at WINPAT in Harare opposite Gain Cash and Carry. He is from Buhera and graduated from Harare Polytechnic with a diploma in boiler making.

He was driving a fancy Lexus vehicle and he was buying turkey feed whilst I was buying de-worming tablets for my goats. In Harare he stays in Tynwald South where he built a house. Now here is a shocker…the youngster is only 24!

The transformation

It dawned upon the youngster that he had no relatives in the capital to offer him accommodation or financial support. He was on his own in the capital! Some of his peers were job hunting and some having turned to vending on the streets of Harare. Some had trekked to the diaspora.

What next?                                                                                     

The only last thing that came to his mind mashoko ababa vake ekuti simba rehove ririmumvura ( the power of a fish is in the water) meaning our roots kumusha, if we think fast ndokunobva financial freedom!

Tried to do fish farming but faced water challenges due to low rainfalls. Tried a hand on cattle rearing but there were no sufficient pastures. End of the road? Not really…

Then he attended a 1 day workshop on beekeeping costing US$5.00 and was empowered for life.

 So he headed to his rural home,  kwakucheka miti and mapuranga kwakugadzira mikoko 50 and kwakuuya kuHarare kwakutenga maold pallets kwakunogadzira mikoko.

He now has 300 beehives and all he did was to buy wax or namo yekuisa mumikoko  and as we speak he literally has thousands! Hold on- thousands? Yes he has bees working for him lol

Harvesting

Harvesting takes place every 2,5 months or 4 times per year.

Each beehive gives him 40 litres of honey but he can only harvest half and leaving the remainder.

Each beehive therefore gives him 80 litres of honey.

Wholesale price of honey ranges from US$2-US$5.00.

Do the maths

His revenue is a minimum of US$160 per beehive to a maximum of US$400 per year.

Now do the rest of the maths on how much revenue he gets per annum!

Future Plans

Does it now maketh business sense why he managed to build a home in the capital at such a tender age? At what age did you build your first home?

The business does not require much labour unlike other business ventures and the youngster has plans to go fully commercial and increase the number of beehives to 1000. Who says rural areas are outposts of poverty?

We end by quoting a leading entrepreneur from Kadoma, Mr Low who says;

Financial freedom haineyi nekuita degree it’s just basic education and common sense!

Here is our copy of the latest news letter for download and your viewing pleasure. Features the latest developments in the forum such as discussions and tours.