Diaspora Matters

Do you remember the video of Julius Malema’s EFF and the H&M saga? That is a classic example of marketing gone wrong! Marketers had designed a controversial advert hoping to generate huge traffic through controversy-unfortunately it ended up stirring trouble across the globe and South Africa was not spared. You do not want such bad publicity when you are an entrepreneur because it can destroy your business overnight. So how does an entrepreneur create a business post or advert that goes viral without creating unnecessary controversy?

Our case study
The following post has been trending in Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa,  Trinidad and Tobago, Namibia, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. We did post it on Wednesday evening  and the objective being for business followers to while up time and have fun. It also provided useful insights on Digital Marketing.

The question
……………………………………………
Fast Thinking Required: What will be your best option?
Answer A: Stop
Answer B: Proceed.
Answer C: Reverse and drive Back.
Answer D: Hoot and scare the lions

………………………………………………………….

Why did thousands of people respond to the above posts in different countries at the same time?

• Emotions:It draws emotions (fear). Lions draw attention and bringing fear to most people-they represent danger!
• Numbers Game: The fact that the number of lions is more magnifies the fear(emotions). If it was one lion…the response would have been minimal. The more the lions, the greater the danger and the greater the curiosity and responses.
• Risk Taking Decision: The post asks one to make a decision which can be potentially dangerous (Possibility of getting killed or injured by the lions or the lions killing or injuring you)
• Concerned Parties: Concerned parties in the adverts are animal lovers who are forced to respond due to the implication of the advert on animal issues. The implication of someone harming the lions is too ghastly to contemplate-perhaps this maybe the little controversial part of the advert.
• Vulnerability: The vulnerability of the lone car brings emotions of empathy-will the person survive? One car versus more than 9 lions?
• Real Life: You have been asked to be part of the action, you have to make a life saving hasty decision. You can therefore visualize yourself in this real life experience where the focus is on YOU with implications on YOU and NINE lions!
• Its Science: We will explain the analysis above in  our book on investment opportunities coming at the end of next week

Science Behind Digital Marketing

The bottom line in Digital Marketing is that you would like to increase sales! You like to convert interest in an advert into sales for your business and not for people to just see posts or adverts. You therefore need to appreciate Traffic generation,Lead generation,Lead nurturing,Conversions and Measuring. Digital Marketing has a lot of science or art behind it as shown in our viral advert which went viral across the region. This is our third viral advert with the first one attracting millions of views leading to one of our most successful initiatives ever on rug making.

We will explain more on the art and science of designing adverts and also converting them into real business in our book on investment opportunities coming in a few days time. Its a book you pray that your competitors do not get hold of! More trainings on Digital Marketing coming during the month of February.We encourage you to attend trainings in your local areas, read books and research more on this interesting topic.

Below we feature a select few responses from the thousands of responses our posts received…Africans and citizens of Trinidad and Tobago indeed have a bagful humour!

South Africa

Andy Claude Moodley E …GET my mother-in-law to take of make-up and scare those beautiful cats

Simosakhe Chamane Park the car on the side of the road and walk toward the lion greet n play with them

Ntando Tdoz Ntuli Lions get distracted by noise so it will be D

Junaid Yunus Soni B – Coz I’ll be like you better move it or lose it, you vicious man-eating, obstruction-causing carnivores!!!

Erna Kauendji Well i just hope i wont have a breakdown or the engine catches fire. Strange things happen when it is least expected.

Nelson Natasen Spin that car right there , and get the hell out

Avela Tatakamzontsundu Tuta And sing the song (waphuma u Daniel )

Buda Motswiri Proceed nd rev the engine high,wil scare the lions

Malawi

Dhiren Thakrar A. Its a rare sight so i would stop and enjoy the moment!

Elsmore Mtheto Mwenecho PRAY FOR MERCY AS YOU PROCEED

Zaheer Kara make the car fly over them lions like the Sci-Fi movies..problem solved

Cuthbert Chiumia B forward ever backward never no matter the storm stay focused on the goal

Nganya Munyithu Approach slowly. Get out of car and ask what’s for lunch today

Chikko Sekani If you are a trained driver then its not about best option its about what the rules or the laws say.

Fundo Chiwaula WG Go close, stop and step out of the car and greet them

Kambale Ulemu Continue moving forward at a high speed, ithawa yokha mikangoyo.

Smith Banda You just stop A I had the same scenario in mikumi national park in Tanzania I met 2 lions sleeping in the middle of the road at night I just stopped and waited for close to 15 minutes till they moved out of the road themselves.

Arrow Man None of the above. The best is is to stop . take a selfie with them lions . And post on social media captions ..#afewcandothis

Fumban Dicquez Drive slowly and talk to the lions nicely….they will pave way….kkkkkk

Namibia

Jay Hedge Lions are strong but only relative to the animals they hunt. Unless you are driving an open-top car or a pick up without a canopy and there are passengers at the back, there’s absolutely no reason to fear this encounter. Its very unlikely that these lions will attack the car. Just keep the doors locked, windows up and approach at a slow speed while hooting gently. Surely they will move out of the way.

Yolande L Fourie Stop! Enjoy the moments! At the rate they are killed in Namibia , you will only be seeing them on the covers of some books soon.

Nancy Carine C. What if there are more waiting ahead?

Trevor Ncube Non of the above.in such a fast big moving object,lions will go out of the road hence for safety of the car and lions one can hoot to give a warning of the incoming vehicle.

Shahbaz Ali Drive slow close to them take some pictures buye go Ahead ….?

Sandratjiuira Kapazu Kaurandua C….but if i have people at the back I will reverse n back..if nobody at the back the answer is C

Franz Tumuna E…will get out and scare them away

Bernice Grobler Sit and watch them for the whole time tbey are there

Werner Abraham Proceed but very fast and hold the steering very well and hoot, they will run away.

Werner Abraham If you happen to go for other option then you are finished, if you proceed fast and hoot, they will run for their life, they will see that this coming thing is also serious, they will not have other option other then to run away, remember that they are also alive and can be in fear also.

Zambia

Ituri Ole Semuliki Approach the lions in full speed, lights on hooting @ 100kph.

Oni Kappisy Mutelele I was once in such a situation….. Just drive proceed slowly

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Godfrey Nchemba Show the lions you are man enough. Come out of the car and say hello. . Politely ask them to give you way. Kwamana. All the best.

Ntombi Dlamini E. Drive like Schumacher and see what happens

Kamfwa Mubanga Hamooya D, lions are not like elephants. Elephants you stop wether you like it or not.

Davies Lunda Lions are not so scary, you just drive by_passing them at a moderate speed but keep on honking

Musa Kalinda If you have been to Dar es salaam before we pass through a park called mikumi……thy always come by the road side….just stop and do not anything….stay put no noise…..A distance away….thy leave the road eventually.

Musa Kalinda I have been in such an encounter before…..basically stop thy go out of the road…..just stay a distance away

Andy Mphande Make sure the windows are closed and drive at a fast good speed so that you don’t crush otherwise it’s tricky

Worldwide retail e-commerce sales reached US$2.290tn in 2017, some 10.1% of all retail sales, and are set to hit $4.479tn by 2021. While many markets are already well developed, there’s still a huge potential audience to be reached and some exciting up-coming trends will help to reach them.

There’s big news ahead for e-commerce in 2018. Exciting and developing new markets like Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America are set to take off in a big way and new technologies are likely to cause a huge shift in the way companies market their goods online. What should SMEs be looking out for in 2018 and which trends are most likely to help their businesses? Here are my eight “ones to watch” this year.

1. Customer experience and personalisation

Customer experience transformation is not just for big players like Amazon. The trend of personalisation will be key to winning and keeping customers in the years to come. Businesses that tackle customer experience transformation will win customers’ hearts and minds. Why? With today’s information overload, consumers don’t want to waste their time with irrelevant information. Offering personalised services, products and information will help SMEs stand out from the crowd online and keep customers coming back for more. According to a report by Boston Consulting Group, retailers that have implemented personalisation strategies see sales gains of 6-10%, at a rate two to three times faster than other retailers.

2. Omni platform and device

By the end of 2017, two billion people used their mobile devices to shop online globally. And while not all online shoppers make purchases with their mobile phone, some 95% of mobile internet users look up local information on their phones prior to calling or visiting a business. According to Google, “some 85% of online shoppers start a purchase on one device and finish on another.” The trend provides a clear message from consumers: 2018 will be about integrating online platforms and devices

3. M-commerce

Mobile devices will become even more important for online shopping in 2018. Mobile will reach 70% of e-commerce traffic by the end of 2018 and more and more people will purchase via their mobile devices. According to Goldman Sachs forecasts, mobile commerce revenue in 2018 will equal the total e-commerce revenue for 2013, some $626bn.

Companies like Google, Samsung and Apple are making it even easier with advancements in mobile payment technology which will make mobile checkout the preferred method of payment for many customers.

4. Voice search

More and more people are using voice assistance to search for products online, especially millennials, 40% of whom have already used a voice assistant prior to making a purchase. By 2020, the number will surpass 50%. The voice search trend is a big topic, particularly for search engines and advertisers.How will customers find products when they no longer have to visit a website? Businesses need to think about optimising their listings for voice search and ensuring their content is relevant to the kind of queries customers might use when searching for their product.

5. Convenience and increased fulfillment options

Customers want convenience, from choosing their pick-up and delivery points to having their goods delivered next day. The delivery and fulfillment market has always been competitive, but it’s going to heat up even more in 2018. Companies that want to succeed will have to be faster, more efficient and offer more options: Whether it’s time slots for home delivery or in-store pick up, the more the better.

6. Augmented reality

The long-awaited launch of Magic Leap’s first headset marked another step in the journey towards augmented reality (AR) shopping. Applied to online services, e-commerce could become as good as the real thing once AR goes mainstream, and retailers are getting very excited about what’s ahead. TechCrunch predicts that the AR market will reach $83bn by 2021, driven primarily by AR on mobile devices.

And who wouldn’t be keen to try it? Imagine you can try on clothes before buying them, test make-up, look at a product in 3D and see how it will fit in your home? Furniture company Wayfair already offers an augmented reality feature for iOS 11. Its “View in Room 3D” allows shoppers to see 3D furniture and décor in their homes before they buy.

7. Emerging market potential

With e-commerce markets maturing around the world, businesses are on the lookout for new potential markets. Now that around half of US households hold a Prime membership, and nearly half of China’s population is actively making online purchases, it’s time to focus on some new geographies. The ones to watch, according to Business Insider, are India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. E-commerce penetration rates in these areas are only around 2-6%, making them a potential goldmine for growth.

8. B2B’s data challenge

We’re all so focused on consumers and their online habits, that we often overlook the booming B2B sector. In 2017, according to Statista, “the gross merchandise volume of business-to-business e-commerce transactions is projected to amount to 7.66 trillion U.S. dollars, up from 5.83 trillion U.S. dollars in 2013”.

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.