Diaspora Matters

Our organisation helps the Christian Community with entrepreneurship training once in a while. Our trainings or presentations are always well attended and yesterday we found ourselves in Chitungwiza, a dormitory town located 30 kilometres to the South East of Harare. Invited by a leading Pentecostal church called Miracles and Deliverance Ministries International (MDMI) we delivered our sixth business training having already done others for ZAOGA (thrice), Holiness Revival (Chitungwiza), United Methodist Church (Sunningdale) and Salvation Army (Budiriro).

We are sharing with you the business presentation so that you can compare and contrast with what you are doing at your own church and hopefully get inspired.

Imagine changing from 9-5 job to being an entrepreneur? What will be the changes? The first change is all of a sudden you wear many hats! If you were used to being in ICT or Marketing now here is the bad news…we are adding an additional 8 portfolios to your resume!

We are adding- Human resources, Finance, Operations, Sales, Marketing, Administration, IT; Systems, Personal Development and Strategic Planning in addition to family life.

Are you a Rabbit Farmer based in Zimbabwe? If your answer is Yes then we have excellent news for you. Our group of farmers have established a company that seeks to develop the rabbit meat market. The company Rabbits International already has 250 members which it helps with rabbit rearing and marketing. Farmers pool their rabbits and sell them in bulk to regular clients.

We are currently registering farmers who are already into rabbit rearing but facing marketing challenges. If interested then visit our offices at No 34 Quendon Road in Monavale, Harare. Our contact Phone is +2634339454 or +263774081808.

Thank You

Our forum is well known for writing about investment opportunities in Zimbabwe. We have covered over 500 free articles on investment in the country and we capped this with a book compilation of investment opportunities. We are also getting a high number of investors inquiring about investment opportunities in the country.

So do you have an opportunity you would like to be featured? Do you want to be visible? Then get in touch and we will freely capture your investment story and details.

In Malawi they have the tasty Kilombero which is in high demand but Malawians only taking advantage of less than 0.5 percent of the market. Wake up call to our cousins from the Warm Heart of Africa-do more to market your rice beyond the Malawian borders. Set up distribution centres across Southern Africa, deliver the rice in an efficient manner. Your potential is unlimited in Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho.

We focus on this article on Zimbabwe looking at top products where entrepreneurs are not doing enough in order to benefit.

The Mazoe Orange Drink: Unlimited demand for this natural flavoured drink. It is the best drink in Southern Afrsca and demand is high in Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana and South Africa. Demand is from Zimbabweans who have migrated to other countries across the region as well as foreign nationals. The history of the drink in Malawi is rather interesting as the first migrants who emigrated to Zimbabwe working in mines often took the drink back home as a sign of success. It is like Zimbabweans or Malawians working in South Africa-coming back home with a Gauteng Province (GP) Number plated vehicle is viewed as a great sign of someone doing well in Mzantsi. This is how the Mighty Mazoe gained influence in Malawi in the 1960s and beyond and up to now it still commands a lot of respect and demand.

Arts and Crafts: Zimbabweans are masters of arts and crafts in Southern Africa. In South Africa, women introduced hand knitted clothing in the early nineties known as Doilies or Madhoiri. This is how Zimbabweans entered South Africa with stone sculptures following suit in the late nineties. Our organisation last year introduced tapestry which was well received across the region. We were simply building on a reputation build over the past 30 years. We added entrepreneurship training and took advantage of Digital Marketing inorder to create a wave that took the region by storm.

Opportunities exist especially in the tourism sector with our crafts selling well in Durban, Cape Town, Walvis Bay and Maputo. We however need to learn from our tapestry programme on marketing and reach out to more clients from the region and beyond.

The next big thing from Zimbabwe is Maputi(Roasted corn)! Already a lot of maputi is being transported to neighboring countries such as South Africa. Initially targeting the Zim population, the maputi has also been accepted by other migrants in South Africa such as Mozambicans and Malawians. The competitive advantage of the maputi is its very low price. Other enterprising Zimbos have been buying maputi guns and making maputi for sale in South Africa, evidence shows instant success! Needed are Zimbabweans who can taior make the maputi for South African consumers and help market or promote this proudly Zimbo product.

In Zimbabwe these pre-cast walls are called ‘Dura Walls’ after the name of the company that introduced them in the  90s. They help beautify most homes that you find in Zimbabwe as fences. They are also used to build homes, churches and offices. The advantages of pre-cast walls are as follows:

1. Very cheap to make (You use cement, sand, corrugated steel and water)
2. You can create a long lasting structure within a few hours.
3. Easy to transport finished materials.

So dear reader, Zimbabwe has an instant solution to housing woes in Southern Africa through the ‘Durawall concept’. This is much better than container homes, much better than shacks. This concept can help a lot of entrepreneurs from Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa who are interested in the provision of innovative housing solutions. It is cheap and fast and produces beautiful homes. Interested in learning about this? Then whatsapp +263774081808 or contact us.

In South Africa its called an ‘Ice Lolo’ but in Zimbabwe we call them Freezits after the name of the company that created these flavoured cool drinks. What makes them a hit is their prices, very low prices retailing at 10-20 cents and thus ideal for school kids. We have heard a lot of inquiries from across the region when we advertised ‘freezit making machines’. Demand unlimited in Mozambique due to high temperatures and also South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Malawi. Our market survey in Malawi showed that a lot of people are interested in the product especially in Blantyre.

So there you have it, there is a lot to learn from Zim and you too can implement some of the products we covered in your own country and make a difference.

If you have no access to opportunities in Zimbabwe then you are at a great disadvantage! If you do not know where opportunities are, how to access them and when-then you will forever be behind as those who have mastered the art of knowing opportunities rarely share information that gives them competitive advantage.

One of the disadvantaged communities is our friends in the diaspora. You are not likely to find opportunities information on the internet which is your only connection with Zimbabwe. Most of the opportunities information is found in hard copy and our forum has come in inorder to plug the gap of information asymmetry.  We would like to thank the Diaspora community for supporting our book. Thank you very much, the book has been placed on our forum shop o the link http://zbinworld.com/shop/. We are glad that a lot of you are interested in tapping into local opportunities that are emerging in the economy.

The first stage in benefiting is to register a company in a field of your interest. Register a company and start operations on a low basis and build it up over time. We covered this on our book on  the section of why you should register your business. Only registered companies are going to win big in Zimbabwe! Get registered, sort out the paperwork and scout for opportunities.

As a thank you to those who supported our book, we have captured an advert in The Herald for your attention. What should be of interest to you is the construction or repair of roads is providing opportunities for many sectors of the economy. From engineering companies, security companies, Solar energy companies, printing companies, branding companies. Even hard ware shops are benefiting!

Now look at the bad shape of the state of most roads in Zimbabwe and ask yourself the opportunities that will come from the repair and construction process?  How many solar companies will benefit? How many printing companies will benefit? For engineers who had migrated to other countries-you can ignore local opportunities at your own peril.

The advert by Intertoll Zimbabwe (Pvt) Limited is a call for expressions of interest looking for suitable contractors and suppliers who wish to participate in provision of various goods and services for the maintenance of the R2 and R5 routes (Plumtree-Harare-Mutare). The EOI sought are relative to the categories listed below:

Provision of Road Maintenance Services

• Maintenance of Road Signs
• Permanent Road Marking
• Maintenance of Guard Rails
• Drainage Maintenance
• Vegetation Control
• Small Concrete Works
• Stabilisation of Slopes

Supply of Road Building Materials and Plant Hire Services

• Supply of Aggregate
• Supply of Bituminous
• Plant hire services
• Vehicle recovery services

Provision of Road Maintenance Consultancy Services

• Professional road engineers
• Surveying services
• Road construction testing

Supply of parts and/or services for vehicle maintenance

• Provision of spare parts
• Specialist vehicle repairs
• Supply and fitment of tyres
• Provision of staff transport

Toll Plaza Maintenance

• Solar sevices
• Generator repairs and services
• CCTV installations, repairs and services
• Electrical fence maintenance and repairs
• Plumbing, painting and general maintenance
• Steel structure maintenance and repairs
• Other Goods and Services
• Printing and Stationery
• Fire protection services
• General Hardware
• Branding

Requirements

• Company profile and 3 traceable references
• Proof of registration as a Zimbabwean company
• Proof of compliance with statutory requirements
• VAT certificate if any
• Letter from bank confirming banking details
• Available manpower (applicable to subcontractors)
• Available equipment (applicable to subcontractors)
• Proof of insurance (applicable to subcontractors)
• Capability and capacity (applicable to particular offering)

Geographical area of operation-applicants based in Plumtree, Bulawayo, Gweru, Kwekwe, Kadoma, Chegutu, Ruwa, Marondera, Rusape and Mutare encouraged to apply.

General Terms and Conditions

•  Intertoll Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd not bound to approve any company as a suitable contractor or supplier, and shall not be obliged to furnish reasons for rejecting any application/expression.
• Intertoll Zimbabwe shall not be liable for any costs incurred in the preparation of the application/expression
• Intertoll Zimbabwe reserves the right to amend, modify or cancel the requirements ad deliverables of the expression.

Applications/expressions shall be submitted by the 13th of April to the procurement committee, Intertoll Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, 15 Fleetwoord, Alexandra Park, Harare.

The reason why this book is trending in Southern Africa is a simple one-it covers a lot of business opportunities in the region such as Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, DRC, South Africa and Zimbabwe. It also captures researches and and business tours to Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. The name of the book is Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans but opportunities and skills covered benefit every citizen of Southern Africa.

Buy the book here!

The revised version is coming and will be distributed for free to those who purchased the initial version. The second book we are compiling is titled Business Opportunities for South Africans and our sister organisation in South Africa will be handling the compilation of the book.

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Are youths in your church business savvy? Are they up to date with business information? Do they have skills on business opportunity identification? Are they up to date with available funds from Government and other sources? Are youths in your church forming companies? Do they know how and why? Do they know how to apply for tenders? Are they aware of opportunities that do not require a lot of capital?

The Good News
ZBIN is a Christian friendly forum and we have helped inspire hundreds of members from the Christian community. We have carried out church outreach programmes to the Christian communities in Harare and Chitungwiza. One worrisome trend we established was lack of entrepreneurship information! Few are reading newspapers, few are following local news…..the church community is out of touch with business!

In order to help plug the information gap, we have joined church groups to the ZBIN Whatsapp platforms with the first being Holiness Revival Church in Chitungwiza. They have been able to get latest information which we post on many groups on our platforms. We have made sure when we create new inspirational business groups such as the Chicken layer groups, they get first preference before groups are filled by others!

Your church can benefit too
Simply talk to your church leadership and create a business group and then add us and we will distribute freely business tips and information. Do not be left out, Zim is now Open for Business and churches should be open for business too!
This is a free service from the Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network.

The number of business ideas from the forum is very high-a lot of innovative ideas from Zimbabweans based locally and abroad. Our forum with 34.000 members is growing everyday and every week close to 12.000 active members participate on our Facebook Digital Platforms and over 8.000 on our Whatsapp platforms helping to create a rich entrepreneurship society in Zimbabwe!

Our model, the first of its kind in Africa harnesses all digital platforms so that information is always flowing from one platform to the other. For instance discussions on our Whatsapp platforms help to shape content for discussions on the Facebook platform, the information is then stored on the website for future reference. Information can flow from the website to Facebook and Whatsapp or vice versa. Every minute a business discussion is going on, every minute an entrepreneur is getting useful advice on business opportunities in Zimbabwe and the region.

One of the major problem encountered by entrepreneurs is access to capital finance and in order to help members we will be introducing an innovative approach called Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding enables people with viable business ventures to showcase them and attract funders. If your project is good enough, funders will provide funding and this has been working across the globe with up to $34 billion raised across the globe in 2015 according to www.crowdexpert.com.

The concept is still in its infancy in the country with only one platform doing crowdfunding on a small scale. There is no crowdfunding platform for the SME sector and ZBIN is therefore filling this void. So do expect more information as we help our members to have access to funding for their viable business projects.