Diaspora Matters

How does Harare fare  against Luanda when it comes to prices? The price of a 2 litre cooking oil bottle in Harare is twice than in Luanda! The trend is the same when it comes to chicken. Economists may need to do a comparison of prices between Harare and one of the places known to be the most expensive in the world..Luanda! Our city may possibly have the highest prices in Africa!

We bring you part of an interview we carried out with one of our members based in Angola, Olivia Maguu Luamba. She lives in Angola and participated in the President’s address to the Zimbabwean community living in Angola last month.

How are living conditions in Angola?

Angola has a sub-tropical climate almost everywhere, with a cool and dry season from May to August, and a hot and rainy season, which runs from mid-September to April in the north-east, from mid-October to April in the centre, from November to March in the south, and from February to April in Luanda, while it’s almost non-existent on the southern coastline.The official language is Portuguese and is spoken throughout the country. There are some local languages, but these are mainly spoken outside of Luanda.The Angolan cuisine is a combination of Portuguese cuisine and west African cuisine. The traditional staple food is funge, which is basically sadza made from cassava flour. The cities close to the coastline eat a lot of fish.

How long have you been in Angola?

Almost ten years

Approximate Official Number of Zimbos living in Angola

About 500

What are the top business opportunities in Angola?

Agriculture, Mining and Tourism

Are there Zimbabweans doing business in Angola?

Yes (More information covered in our Investment Opportunities Book to be released next week)

Give us a break down of Rentals, Fuel Price, Cooking Oil and Chicken

We have a huge discrepancy between the official bank rate and the black rate e.g as I am answering these questions, the official rate is 1US$:202 AKZ while the black market rate is 1US$:400 AKZ . I will give the costs using the official and unofficial rate

Cooking oil $2.30 : $1.13

Petrol price $0.79 : $0.40

Chicken full $4.45: $2.25 

Rent 3 bedroomed flat (kilamba) $396:  $200

Rent 1 bedroomed flat (city) $1,250 : $625

Cost of air tickets from Harare to Luanda

Return flight TAAG – US$690

Tell us about top holiday destinations

Benguela has great beaches, Cabinda also has the Mayombe Rain Florest,

Can Zimbos find jobs in Angola?

Yes it is possible, although now it’s a bit harder than before.  Its very easy for people in specialized fields e.g Agriculturalists as the agriculture sector is fast expanding.

How did you learn Portuguese?

I enrolled for formal classes and later learnt from the community

Advice to first time visitors to Angola

You need to have a lot of patience. Don’t come here with expectations that things work the same way as in Zim or South Africa. Angola is unique and has a unique way of doing things.

Do not miss our book on Investment opportunities for Zimbabweans in 2018. Possibly the best resource book on investment opportunities for Zimbabweans. The book is named Opportunities for Zimbabweans because it has a regional outlook and covers not only Zimbabwe but opportunities in neighboring countries and the world at large. It features;

Provides an analysis of Economic Recovery Opportunities focusing on Agriculture, Service Industry, Mining, Transport and Real Estate Sectors. It covers real life experiences of entrepreneurs, includes coverage of diasporans in Namibia, DRC, India, Canada and Angola. The last chapter covers resources on where to source funding, risks associated with investment and how to mitigate them.

The best part of entrepreneurship is getting access to markets-this is the real deal! Access to finance is fine but does not come close to access  to markets.We are coming to the end of our carpet making training at the end of the month and would like to thank everyone who supported  us  from the inception of the program in August 2017. The aim of the training was to help empower women through a disruptive technology approach of weaving shaggy rugs through use of own hands.

Right from the design phase of the regional programme, we had Access to Markets in Mind!If you are designing an entrepreneurship program and you leave out the difficult part of Access to Markets then you are probably wasting a lot of time and resources! Access to Finance is easier than Access to Markets. You see, you can borrow money and have access to Finance, you can use pension funds and have access to finance, you can use salary advance and have access to Finance. You can even partner with those with cash and still have access to Finance. Donors can even bring monies and help in the access to Finance aspect. The bottom line is there are a lot of options for access to Finance.

When it comes to access to Markets, the game changes altogether! There are no many options for access to Markets. You have to work hard and smart in order to access Markets. You need experience and a lot of extra work in order to access Markets. Competition on the Access to Markets is stiffer than on access to Finance. A person working at a financial institution can easily obtain a salary advance or mortgage within a few days. Let the person open a shop that sells building materials in town and then the real battle begins….he has to compete with established companies, he has to compete with other new entrants, he has to be wary of the foreign competition that is coming on the horizon. So we have a person with capital but stressed on markets, the markets can easily sink his capital, the market is where the real business is.

Moloko Mohlama
As already mentioned, when we designed the programme, we had our eyes on the markets. How are trainees going to access markets? How will people from different backgrounds access markets when they d not have expertise on markets?
To answer this, we included business training which had a heavy focus on Digital Marketing. Trainees needed to appreciate the difficulty of access to markets, needed hands on skills on marketing and of course taking advantage of Digital Marketing which makes it easy even for novices to enter the market.

The target of our products are retail shops, having retail shops selling carpet rugs enables entrepreneurs to concentrate on what they are good at-weaving carpets! For them to get contracts to supply retail shops, they need to team up register companies! A retail shop will look at numbers, can you successfully supply big numbers?

So Moloko Mohlama is one of our start entrepreneurs based in South Africa. She has managed to get a contract with TOTAL SPORTS in Sandton, Wonderpark and from the 1st of March she will be supplying Kaizer Chiefs bathroom sets and already 30 orders have been received!

This is has been our dream-be efficient in business-secure a market first and then make products with orders already in the pocket! Manufacturing something and then looking for markets later has proved to be an inefficient way of doing business. Unogona kuva stuck with slow moving stock-at worst your stock may even have no buyers!

Our carpet making themes include Sports (Its sad locals have not made Dembare, Bosso, Caps mats only South Africans have picked this), Other themes include Religion, Culture and the biggest money earner being the Corporate World in terms of branding!

This is how we have been helping women entrepreneurs across Southern Africa with business trainings on access to Markets through Digital Marketing and Access to finance through getting organised (registered) and seeking corporate, government and donor funding.

So congrats to Moloko-there is no way she is going to satisfy the demand of millions of Kaizer Chief fans!The bathroom sets are handmade and it makes sense for sporting shops to sell them because they have a special story behind them….if you buy one, you have supported to create employment for hundreds of women and if you support a woman-you have supported a nation!

Good luck to her for excellent networking and believing in an organization based in Monavale, Harare, Zimbabwe,ZBIN!

Our forum has made an impact in Durban where we have hundreds of followers and this is not surprising after our trainings last year that affected thousands of women in this KwaZulu Natal Region. The spirit of entrepreneurship is high in Durban, sisters there are hardworking and go getters. The best entrepreneurs for South Africa are likely to emerge from this region in the not so distant future.

Digital Marketing is still in infancy in Durban and we urge sisters there to embrace it and use it to their advantage. Attending a course on Digital Marketing is therefore a must if you would like to be successful as an entrepreneur. Digital marketing is an efficient way of reaching out to a broad market in an effective and efficient manner.The old way of marketing involves opening a shop and waiting for local clients to come in and buy goods or services. This limits the number of people you can reach out to  because if you open a shop  in Durban how will you reach out to clients in Johannesburg? How about Cape Town or East London?

Digital Marketing enables you to cover all four corners of South Africa, what is more? You can also reach out to clients across the world like what one of our trainees Bongiwe Xaba does. She makes traditional Zulu Attire and sells it to Europe! She gets clients through Facebook boosting and ships her material abroad. She takes advantage of the fact that the world loves South Africa and millions tourists visit South Africa every year. The interest in Heritage Day  by the international community opens markets for South African based entrepreneurs to make clothes or arts and crafts for sale to international customers in Europe, Asia, USA and Australia.

E-Commerce a must

A good number of sisters have embraced part digital marketing and advertise goods on popular Facebook Groups such as Durban Factories which has a membership of 350,000. Facebook and Whatsapp advertising has limitations though in the sense that you have to manually register members and follow up with them. This is an efficient way of marketing as many clients can be lost to rivals. Most people who visit  Social Media when they make a decision on buying a product, they often want to do so immediately. Therefore an entrepreneur must be organized and have a website where potential clients can view all the details they may need. The website must be a shop as well allowing people who have shown interest in buying to do so immediately!

We therefore urge our members and followers to be efficient when selling goods and services and upgrade from manually  placing Facebook Adverts and wait for responses.Open a website that is E-Commerce enabled and have a shop that runs 24 hours a day and  7 days a week. This is how you can increase your sales in Durban and everywhere else across the globe.

Popular Business Ideas in Durban

1. Sisters in Durban want to look good and trendy clothes, shoes, handbags come top
2. Hair products, related to the top one-its all about sisters looking great
3. Kitchen ware is hugely popular especially Tupperware
4. Herbal Medicine-(Forever living, Teaguard,Longrich, Esylife,Herbal life) products and Chinese made products are popular
5. Perfume Making and Selling-emerging and fast business idea (Avon,
6. Buying and selling jewellery (some are now making jewellery)
7. ICT gadgets
8. Household furniture
9. Baking cakes for sale
10. Arts and Crafts –Tapestry

This list is obviously long but we have chosen a few small business ideas that are making a mark in Durban and the whole of Kwazulu Natal. The sisters want to look good and enjoy a good life-therefore if you try and address this-you will never go wrong! They want their homes to look neat, tidy and trendy and will therefore invest in this area.

It was also interesting to find sisters traveling all the way from East London to  Durban inorder to buy clothes and  shoes for resale. Having traveled to most provinces in South Africa the conclusion that we have is that Durban (KZN) has more opportunities for entrepreneurs than most provinces in South Africa, the economy is better, the buying power also better than in most areas.

We however urge entrepreneurs to improve and diversify. Buying and selling business is elementary stuff. You should move on and tap onto opportunities presented by the tourist sector. Do set up travel agencies, build homes or hotels and take advantage of high tourist arrivals. Carry out more studies on this area and develop plans to tap into opportunities that exist and set up start up companies.

Room for New Business Ideas

Do not be afraid to introduce new business ideas or concepts. Our forum introduced the disruptive technology on carpet making in Durban and the programme went viral with more than 20,000 people responding. We followed up the interest by training a champion group that cascaded trainings to thousands of women across the region. We followed up with the hybrid paw paw growing project which also showed that there is high interest in Agriculture by Durbanites. Our organization will therefore be bringing you more information on opportunities in the agriculture sector in the coming months. So the spirit of entrepreneurship in Durban is high and we experienced it, we compared it to the other regions and came to the conclusion that Durban is Number 1. Entrepreneurs need to carry out detailed studies before rushing investment decisions.

We urge caution on schemes such as Online Forex Trading-it is a legitimate money making venture but you can easily lose your money to fraudsters. Learn how to do online forex trading on your own and never give funds to anyone to trade on our behalf. The same applies to Bitcoin, do not lose money to people who claim they can invest money on your behalf. Therefore be vigilant, whilst opportunities are high, so are risks especially on Social Media-always view everyone you find there with 99% suspicion and be vigilant.

This post is covered in the upcoming book on investment opportunities for women in Southern Africa, do not miss the e-book which captures the inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs in South Africa which is coming out at the end of February 2018.

When it comes to farming, most think of access to farms. If you have no access to farming land then no benefit from agriculture right? Well not right-land is not everything! You can still make money from agriculture without access to land. All you need is innovation and be tech savvy and below we show you ow other young entrepreneurs are doing it. Yes you can make loads of money from agriculture if you change the way you think and view opportunities.

As population growth increases the need to ramp up food production, tech startups are creating a range of agricultural software, services, farming techniques, and more aimed at bringing more data and efficiency to the sector

The breakdown of categories is as follows:

• Farm Management Software: This includes software like that produced by Andreessen Horowitz-backed Granularthat allows farmers to more efficiently manage their resources, crop production, farm animals, etc.
• Precision Agriculture and Predictive Data Analytics: These startups include those that focus on using big data and predictive analytics to address farm-related issues and make better farm-related decisions in order to save energy, increase efficiency, optimize herbicide and pesticide application (such as Prospera, which uses machine vision and artificial intelligence), and manage risk, among other uses.
• Sensors: Startups in the sensor category include Arable, which offers smart sensors that collect data and help farmers monitor crop health, weather, and soil quality.
• Animal Data: These companies provide software and hardware specifically aimed at better understanding livestock, from breeding patterns (Connecterra).
• Robotics and Drones: This category includes drone companies and related drone services that cater to agricultural needs as well as robots or intelligent farm machines that perform various farm functions more efficiently.
• Smart Irrigation: These startups, including Hortau, provide systems that help monitor and automate water usage for farms using various data exhausts.
• Next Gen Farms: A growing category of companies that utilize technology to provide alternative farming methods to enable farming in locations and settings that cannot support traditional farming
• Marketplaces: These startups offer marketplaces relevant to agriculture by connecting farmers directly to suppliers or consumers without any middlemen. While some are e-commerce platforms, others use tech to facilitate physical marketplaces).
• Plant Data/Analysis: These startups are getting more granular data about plant composition (microbial makeup, genetic expression, etc.) and/or analyzing that data to improve seed research & development and breeding .

Some companies may overlap with different categories and are grouped according to their main use case.

Reports of an attempted kidnap of a form one pupil at a top Harare School are worrisome. So a form one pupil can be kidnapped at school? Now this is scary and we thank the Almighty that the pupil managed foil the kidnap and reported the case to school authorities. The school has since tightened security controls and we share with you the story because this can  happen at your own school. We have decided to tackle an important area which many businesses take for granted-Risk Management.

We start by asking ourselves what can go wrong at a school? What are the greatest risks that can affect a school?
1. Kidnapping or pupils going missing
2. Sexual Abuse.
4. Injury to pupils
5. Disease Outbreaks
6. Disastrous pass rates

The list is long and every school must always ensure that they monitor risks . It is a fast changing world and especially and the availability of social media accelerates the rate of change and in the process the nature of risks are fast changing as well. A number of our members operate schools and they need to be fully aware of risks affecting them and have effective risk management systems in place. Its needs to be noted that you cannot eliminate risks…rather you can only reduce them or transfer them and not completely reduce them to zero.

How the attempted kidnap events unfolded 

An identified man goes to the school and immediately identifies a form one pupil. He tells her that he had been send by her dad to collect her from school. He mentions the name of the kid and also the dad’s name.

The kid confused, asks what has happened to her dad? The man says he is running late and has overtime issues to deal with. The pupil further asks about her mum and the man replies that her mum has gone out of town.

Still confused, the kid probes further and asks the man where her dad works? The man does not answer convincingly and upon realizing this, the kid tells the man that she is going to report him to the school security.

The unidentified man then dashes out of the school yard and disappears into thin air. Later on it turns out that this was an attempted kidnap…the father of the pupil had not send anyone to collect his child.

Implication

1.This can happen to your own kid-sensitize your kid about this danger.

2. What if the kidnapper was a relative? Now that scary because the kid could easily have trusted the relative and vanish without trace.

3. How did the alleged kidnapper get to know about the name of the kid? Are you sharing more than necessary information about your kids on Social Media? Posting photos of your kids and their names on your Facebook Profiles and Whatsapp’s? You may need to revise this, not everyone lurking on the Internet has good intentions.

4. Schools should integrate risk management in their operations. Effective risk management means involving all stakeholders from pupils, parents or guardians and relevant ministry officials. They should come up with a risk strategy of how they will manage, monitor and take corrective action. This is an ongoing process as risks are forever changing.

5. Do schools have sufficient personnel for risk management? Probably not as most schools employ low level bursars with little experience on risk management. A look at most school bursar positions adverts will show that they need someone with a Diploma or first degree in Accounting to manage school finances…..these bursars concentrate their business on transactional processing and reporting and rarely do they opportunities to implement strategic risk management issues. Risk management is therefore left to school heads without training or experience on risk management.

Recommendation and Conclusion.

Take risk management seriously at schools, a number of things can go wrong and the worst that can happen is loss of a pupil within school premises. The school is liable, parents are liable, the ministry is liable…everyone is liable.

Recruit competent School Development Associations. Check the qualifications and experience of the bursar.Is he or she a qualified accountant? What is his or her experience on auditing and risk management?

Schools want to cut on costs and employ bursars who do not demand a lot of money. A cost cutting measure that can cost the school dearly.

Does your school have a risk management in place? Have you seen it? Or even a basic risk register? Does it include or all risks? Were you involved in the crafting of the strategy? Did they ask for your input or did you volunteer to offer input?

Its scary isnt it? The good thing is that you have seen this ZBIN write up, kindly share and also take corrective action. This applies to the pre-school where you send your kid, applies to primary schools and what is shocking is that high schools are not spared.

Take corrective action and help save pupils at schools. This story features in our book on investment opportunities for Zimbabweans under investment in schools.

We gave you the highly successful disruptive technology carpet making course which took Botswana,Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and South Africa by storm. Thousands of women were empowered  and we are proud that the program designed in Monavale Harare managed to make such as huge impact! The programme includes desiring carpets using own hands and we added business training to the course which ensured that trainees appreciated Digital Marketing and fundraising for their projects. Several companies have chipped in thereby ensuring that many women get free training. The programme that started in July last year and launched in Harare in August before cascading it to the whole region is coming to an end at the end of next month. Once decommissioned, in comes another programme-designing fancy homes, offices, schools or churches using old ship containers.

Do follow the forum and wait for the Munemo Containers programme targetting South Africa and Namibia where a lot of containers exist due to their proximity to the sea ports. More details to come within the next 3 weeks.

The sharing economy is an economic model often defined as a peer-to-peer (P2P) based activity of acquiring, providing or sharing access to goods and services that are facilitated by a community based on-line platform.

Breaking Down ‘Sharing Economy’

Communities of people have shared the use of assets for thousands of years, but the advent of the Internet – and its use of big data – has made it easier for asset owners and those seeking to use those assets to find each other. This sort of dynamic can also be referred to as the shareconomy, collaborative consumption, collaborative economy, or peer economy.

Sharing economies allow individuals and groups to make money from underused assets. In this way, physical assets are shared as services. Take for instance car sharing services like Lyft and Uber. According to data provided by the Brookings Institute, private vehicles go unused for 95% of their lifetime. The same report detailed Airbnb’s cost advantage over the hotel space as homeowners make use of spare bedrooms. Airbnb rates were reported to be between 30-60% cheaper than hotel rates around the world.

The Sharing Economy is Evolving

The sharing economy has evolved over the past few years where it now serves as an all-encompassing term that refers to a host of on-line economic transactions that may even include business to business (B2B) interactions. Other platforms that have joined the sharing economy include:

• Co-working Platforms – Companies that provide shared open work spaces for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and work-from-home employees in major metropolitan areas.
• Peer-to-Peer Lending Platforms – Companies that allow for individuals to lend money to other individuals at rates cheaper than those offered through traditional credit lending entities.
• Fashion Platforms – Sites that allow for individuals to sell or rent their clothes.
• Freelancing Platforms – Sites that offer to match freelance workers across a wide spectrum ranging from traditional freelance work to services traditionally reserved to handymen.

Spurred primarily with the growth of Uber and Airbnb, it is expected that the sharing economy will grow from $14 billion in 2014 to a forecasted $335 billion by 2025.

Where does Zimbabwe stand when it comes to Sharing Economy?

We are still some years or probably a decade behind before we embrace this new economy. This new economy is likely to be adopted by young people or returning diasporans. The economy needs to improve first and help to expand the market. The adoption of new technology has generally taken time unless there are get rich quick opportunities like discredited MMM. ZBIN will be exploring the sharing economy avenue in 2018, we do not expect to make a huge impact but to make some small footprint that will be the bedrock of successful launches in future by enterprising entrepreneurs. This is why we are  encouraging lose networking within the community and already our Whatsapp platform with more than 8,000 networked members is a good model which will slowly evolve towards shared economy.

Volunteers

We are going to be holding induction meetings this week for some of our volunteers. They come from diverse backgrounds such as  law, finance, business management and ICT. We encourage members to sign up and help the SME sector. In the process you build your profile which will help you in future.  The SME sector is the biggest business sector in Zimbabwe and employs the largest number of people. The ZBIN community is  strategically  placed to tap into opportunities that exist in the sector and we do this through effective use of digital platforms. One interesting insight is that there are no big name brands for the service sectors such as Company Registrations, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, ICT, Legal and Tax. There are many scattered consultants but no one can be termed a well known Marketing Guru who specialises with the SME sector. Noone can claim to be the leading brand when it comes to developing ICT needs of the SME sector. Therefore golden chance presented to you to do work on a part-time basis and build you brand. This applies to all members-local and diaspora.

Yearly Membership Registration

Do not forget to renew your membership registration which has been pegged at $10 inorder to be affordable. Members have first preference when it comes opportunities on the forum. They benefit from special market surveys, get training and conference discounts. They join any of the ZBIN groups and are guaranteed of full year tenure on the groups. The biggest advantage has to be the ZBIN 2018 Investment Opportunities book worth more than $50 but coming at more than 50% discount to registered members. Get in touch with our Adminstration Assistant, Felicity Chipato on our landline +2634339454 for more registration details.

What are Western Ambassadors saying?

Keep following what Western Ambassadors are saying about Zimbabwe especially the investment climate. To date we can say so far so good especially if we follow what the EU ambassador has said about engaging the government of Zimbabwe and restoring economic ties. The British Ambassador appeared in the Standard today and the song is that of re-engagement for the better of Zimbabweans. The world wants a prosperous Zimbabwe but we have to prove the first test and that is walking the talk in terms of ease of doing business reforms and also conducting free and credible elections later during the year.

For African entrepreneurs, the future is technology driven! For progress we have to look ahead, study current and  future  political, economic, environmental,  social and  technological patterns. The world is changing at a very fast rate creating endless opportunities and risk at the same time. A case in mind is that of Facebook which did not exist in 2013 but is now worth $500 billion and its value is expected to keep rising! The future is therefore technologically driven and countries and citizens therefore need to regularly assess how they are faring when it comes to technology adoption and use.

If the majority of farmers in your country are still doing subsistence farming using manual labour and looking for markets physically then there is a big problem. If we are still relying on rainfall for agriculture then we are still behind and need to catch up fast. Some have already heard of Bitcoins or Crypto currencies-this is a new term and the majority of us are still confused of what exactly this Bitcoin is. Who controls is, how does it get value,who is the owner of it? Whilst wee are still confused, advanced nations are moving ahead with its adoption and use. So for every African Entrepreneur, the key to competitive advantage is through technology! Ensure that technology is a key part of your business. Find ways of automating a lot of your key activities for instance how do you reach out to customers? Do you wait for customers to come to your business and buy? Consider E-Commerce-it is veryfast and efficient, expands your reach beyond your geographical location and customers can buy goods or services 24 hours a day!  Or are you a Non Governmental Organization that carries out capacity building by holding conferences-hiring expensive hotels and inviting participants to come and learn under classroom conditions? Use technology to your advantage-conduct trainings through webinars, create a website where you file training material, create digital training material and send videos and audios, engage participants online and file training material for reference purposes. It is more efficient this way than the traditional model of classroom capacity building

So even when applying for grants from Western Donors, if you fail to include how you will use technology in your grant applications, then your chances of success are likely to be limited. A look at the Kwese Tv competition should show that the eventual winners will need to have included how they will use technology to advance their businesses.

Important Technology Skills for Entrepreneurs

• Be curious-follow technological developments in your field
• Join business forums where they talk of technology
• Follow leading tech savvy business people like Strive Masiyiwa
• Follow leading business forums such as ZBIN, we have a deliberate policy on technology adoption and use
• Read Academic journals-there are a lot that can be found online
• Your business strategy should be anchored on technology-constantly review operations
• Benchmark your operations-if you operate a clothing store in Malawi then study how clothing stores in USA or UK are doing, how can you match their standards at less cost?

If technology is too expensive -worry not, prices will eventually go down and in some cases, disruptive technology maybe on the way.

Below we feature some of the key trends in technology and they should guide you in terms of business strategies. To remain manual is no longer a viable option for entrepreneurs! The information is coming from the Readiness for the Future of Production Report 2018 which is also attached for your download.

Asses how you country, Company, CEO,Pastor, Lecturer or local MP ranks in terms of knowledge of the trends below:

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download

We are almost through with our 2018 investment opportunities book compilation. A hands on book that helps entrepreneurs with crucial information on investment opportunities in Southern Africa with a focus on Zimbabwe. We will cover our entrepreneurial journey featuring Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is a ‘living book’ which covers some of the  top inspiring stories from entrepreneurs from Southern Africa. It covers investment on a macro level, has a section on key trends to follow in 2018 and beyond, it features key skills entrepreneurs need to embrace in 2018 and beyond, an analysis of businesses  that have thrived over the past few years helps entrepreneurs to appreciate the operating environment. Key investment opportunities include Agriculture, Mining, Services Sector, Tourism, ICT, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Transport and others. You get interviews from other entrepreneurs and there are sections on Women owned businesses, Youth owned businesses and we have not forgotten opportunities in rural areas.

Important book for entrepreneurs with no capital but interested in starting business ventures, it is crucial for diasporans interested in relocating back and covers practical issues on relocation and interviews fro others who have successfully relocated. The book is not complete without mentioning source of funds, where to get funding, various options for getting funding and interviews with some who have obtained funding. This should be the business book of the year for Southern Africa. The 250 page book will be available for sale on-line next month, so keep checking the website for your own copy.

Below we feature one of the key topics covered in our book-Agriculture and there is a subsection on Growing Potatoes.

Sweet Potatoes are generally an easy crop to farm due to their low capital intensity and applicability on small tracts of land. There are two broad categories of sweet Potatoes which are as follows:
• The staple type with white flesh and white or purple skin has a high starch and dry matter content.
• The desert flesh and orange skin with a high sugar and beta-carotene content.
Commonly three distinct types of sweet potato available for commercial production include.
1) Orange/ copper skin with orange flesh e.g Beauregard, Hernandez,Beerwah Gold, NC-3, LO-323, Centennial, Darby and Jewel. Zimbabwean orange cultivators such as Beauregard have long, cylindrical to heavy elliptic tubers. They have high beta-carotene content and are fairly quick growers. It may become too big with long growing period.
2) White/cream skin with white/cream flesh colour, has a high yield and a good storage life. It can produce good yield in a relatively short growing period (4months) which is important for cold regions. It produces some long, curved sweet potatoes, especially in sandy soils.
3) Red/Purple skin with cream white flesh e.g : Northern Star, Red Abundance, Rojo Blanco.
Kodow is a very attractive and tasty cultivator when cooked also with a pointed oval tuber. Its tips break of very easily. It requires growing periods of 5 months to produce a good yield.
Selection of a variety to grow should be based on market demand. Varieties are assessed on a number of parameters, including root shape and uniformity, marketable yield, skin and flesh attractiveness and plant vigour.

Climatic requirements:
Temperature
Because sweet potatoes are of a tropical origin, they adapt well to warm climates and grow best during summer. Sweet potatoes are cold sensitive and should not be planted until a danger of frost is past. The optimum temperature to achieve the best growth of sweet potatoes is between 21 and 29 degrees, although they can tolerate low temperatures as low as 18 degree Celsius and as high as 3 degrees Celsius. Storage roots are sensitive to changes in soil temperatures, depending on the stage of root development.

Soil Requirements

Site selection and soil
A well-drained sandy loam is preferred and heavy clay soils should be avoided as they can retard root development, resulting in growth cracks and poor root shape. Lighter soils are more easily washed from the roots at harvest time. Wet season green manure crop with sterile forage sorghum is recommended and should be thoroughly incorporated and decomposed by planting time. Soil pH should be adjusted to about 6,0 by applying lime or dolomite. Rates of 240kg and 400 kg/ha respectively will raise the pH by 0.1 of a unit. The soil should be deep ripped and then disk cultivate to break up any large clods and provide loose soil for hilling of beds. A yearly soil test is recommended to assess soil properties, pH and nutrients levels before ground preparation.

Propagation
Sweet Potatoes are propagated from sprouts or from slips (vine cuttings); sprouts are preferred. Sprouts are grown from plant stock selected for its appearance, freedom from disease and off-types. Approximately 75kg of planting stock sweet potatoes are needed to produce enough sprouts to plant one hectare.

Cutting collection
Tip cuttings of about 30 to 40 cm long with approximately eight nodes are collected from the nursery bed, or the last established planting. Tip cutting should be taken from crops that are old enough to provide material without excessive damage. Avoid “back cuts” as these will have variable maturity and result in significant yield reduction. The lower leaves should be cut away as tearing these off may damage the nodes that will produce the roots. Cuttings can be left under a moist cloth in the shade for a couple of days to promote nodal rooting before planting in the field. At the recommended plant spacing, 330 cuttings are required for a 100m row.

Seedbed production of cuttings
This involves the propagation of cuttings from harvested roots which are placed together in a seedbed. This is an alternative method of producing plant material which requires less labour but does sacrifice a percentage of marketable roots.

Planting cuttings

Cuttings should be planted at an about 45 degrees angle into heaps as this promotes good, even root development. Half of the cutting or three to four nodes should be buried at a spacing of 30cm between plants. Mechanical planters are available and used on a large scale planting but manual planting is widely practiced. This can be as easy as pushing the cutting into the heap with a forked stick. The labour requirement for hand planting is estimated a 32h/ha. Cuttings need to be watered at or immediately after planting. Plantings should be scheduled to allow for progressive fortnightly harvest over the desired production period.

Sprout Production
Sprouts are produced from the conditioned roots in cold frames, heated beds, or field beds of clean sand or fumigated sandy soils. Conditioned roots are covered by more soil sand, though not too much. Four o five weeks are needed to develop strong plants if the soil in the plant has been kept at 23 to 26 degree Celsius. Six to eight weeks may be needed if roots have not been “pre conditioned” Adequate moisture is especially critical to germination of the sprouts and proper root formation on the sprouts.

Panting the sprouts
Sprouts should be taken from the plant beds when 6 to 10 leaves and a strong root system have developed on each one. They are set out into the field as early as possible when the soil has warmed and the risk of frost or a cold weather period has passed. Plants should be spaced 30-38 cm apart in rows that are 1m apart. This requires approximately 14 520 plants per hectare. Management of water is critical to avoid transplant shock.

Soil Preparation
Bed Formation
Sweet potato is grown on raised beds or mounds. This provides the developing roots with loose, friable soil to expand to their potential size and shape without restriction. It allows adequate drainage and provides easy harvesting with a mechanical digger. Mounds should be approximately 30 cm high and 40 cm wide at the base. The main consideration is that developing roots remain under the soil within the heaps. If using a mechanical digger at harvest time it is important to match width of the mound with the width of the digger mouth. Spacing the mounds at 1.5 to 2.0m apart (depending on the tractor width) with a roadway every six rows allows access for boom spray. Mounds are formed using hilling disks, and the base fertiliser can be incorporated during this operation.

Planting period
Planting time is mainly determined by the climate of a location. Sweet potato plants are damaged by light frost and the plants require high temperatures for a period of 4-5 months to yield well. In areas with mild frost, mid-November to mid-December is the best time to plant, and usually the crops get ready for harvest from April to May. Mid November to be the beginning of December is recommended areas with heavy frost and with, harvesting taking place from April to May. It’s common to plant from January to March in frost free areas so that the growing season extends through winter. Cold spells during winter can be a risk depending on the climate of the specific area. In very hot areas, planting should be avoided from November to middle of February as storage root formation is reduced by high temperatures.

Spacing
Optimum plant density on cultivar, but is usually around 40 000 plants per hectare. Rows may vary from 1 to 1.25m apart, in row spacing is usually 25 to 30 cm.

Seeding rate
The number of cuttings required to plant 1ha varies between 30000 and 60000, depending on the specific spacing used.

Fertilisation
The recommended fertiliser rate for sweet potato is based on the crop removal figures. Research (Nutrition monitoring trial, 1992) has shown that this recommendation will produce high yields when used in conjunction with yearly soil nutrient testing and petiole sap nutrient monitoring. Estimated crop removal in KG per ha is:
• 100 kg Nitrogen (N)
• 90 kg Phosphorus (P)
• 200 Kg Potassium (K)
• 200kg Calcium (Ca)
All the phosphorous may be applied in the basal along with 50kg of N and 50kg of K. The remaining 50kg N and 150kg K should be devided into two side dressing at 4 to 6 weeks and at at 10 to twelve weeks from planting. Some calcium will be supplied by the lime or dolomite used to adjust the soil pH and any additional calcium will be supplied by the lime or dolomite used to adjust the soil pH, and any additional calcium may be applied in the basal gypsum. Petiole sap nutrient monitoring is advisable so that the desired nutrient levels for different growth phases can be checked. Any trace elements deficiency would be detected by regular petiole testing, but generally two foliar applications around the time of side dressing should maintain adequate levels. Sprays should include zinc, copper, manganese, iron and boron. A comprehensive 5:15:12 compound fertiliser can cater for the nutrient requirements.

Markets

Export: According to Zimtrade there  is huge potential for exports  to Europe. Demand for sweet potatoes increased by 177% from 2012 to 2016 with figures increasing from $107m to $297 m in  the European  region. With Zimbabwe set to improve economic ties with Europe, this is a great investment opportunity we need to consider for 2018 and beyond. Other countries in Southern Africa should consider exporting opportunities too. According to trademap, Zimbabwe has not exported any sweet potatoes since 2012. The demand for sweet potatoes is largely driven by their  medicinal values and to a lesser extent as food.

Local markets:

According to FAO, 64,127 tonnes of sweet potatoes were produced in 2016  and they are valued at $2million. Sweet potatoes are becoming an important part of diets for rural and urban households. In
urban areas, it is estimated that between 1-7 kg of sweet potatoes are consumed per capita while rural households consume between 3-5 kg of sweet potatoes per capita (Zimbabwe National Vulnerability Assessment Committee,2004). About 11% of sweet potatoes produced in rural areas are consumed in urban areas of the country,thus contributing to household nutrition.The increased demand for sweet potatoes in the country is mainly attributed to the high cost of processed starch foods, such as bread and other confectionery products.