Diaspora Matters

Have you opened your Facebook Page recently and come across sponsored articles, posts or adverts? Iam sure you have done so but may not have paid much attention since most of the adverts are foreignand international companies pushing their brands on Facebook.

Now slowly Zimbabwean companies are appearing on Facebook with sponsored adverts and we expect most companies to join by end of next year. Sponsoring adverts on Facebook is called Facebook Boosting, you will be boosting(promoting) an advert and this allows you access to unlimited market potential.

How is Facebook Boosting Done?

Anyone can do Facebook Boosting and all you need is enough money to place an advert. Amounts can range from as low as $1, $2 …there is no limit. Each amount gives you access to a specific number of viewers and if you want to reach more people then expect to pay more.

Facebook Boosting Advantages

Unlike traditional advertining platforms where there is no flexibility in selecting the audience, Facebook boosting allows you options such as:

1. Geographic location
2. Age
3. Gender
4. Language

If i have a product that i would like to promote in Venezuela, i can now easily do that by using Facebook Boosting. The facility basically removes barriers or boundaries when it comes to advertising and promotion. Payment terms are flexible too as you can choose from as low as $1 to boost an advert. You can choose to boost everyday or on specific time periods.

Who can do Facebook Boosting?

We have seen a slow uptake by major private companies but predict an upswing in the coming months. The reason of the upswing is due to the continued influence of social media. The population of youths in Zimbabwe has been estimated at 70% and most of the youths use social media for entertainment and source of news. So every company is going to be forced to turn to Facebook boosting for adverts and promotional activities. If you do not, then your competitors will and you will be left with no option but to join the band wagon.

We have also seen the use of Facebook Boosting by political parties who are trying to drum up support for the 2018 elections. One political party managed to boost their posts and attracted more than 20,000 followers within a week! We expect all political parties to join the bandwagon within the next few months as they try to tap into young voters who are the majority on social media.

NGOs are slowly taking to Facebook Boosting however because of red tape this is going to take a while before they fully accept the changing times of the digital economy.

Is Facebook Boosting Effective?

Try and imagine a young fresh university graduate going to the CEO of a major company such as Old Mutual or NRZ and advising the CEO to use Facebook Boosting. The answer is likely to be a straight No, the youngster is likely to be dismissed by the CEO because the CEO did not learn about this new social media during his university days, this phenomenon is for youngsters and worse no enough studies have been done to show that this is effective and provides a good return on investment!

The generational gap is going to be the biggest hindrance in acceptance of this new marketing or advertising platform. Unfortunately, this is how a lot of big corporates will lose out to increased competition from agile young competitors in the long run. Facebook boosting does work and we have witnessed its effectiveness where a number of ZBIN members have used it.

Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of Facebook Boosting is Strive Masiyiwa who has managed to get more than 2 million followers across the African continent within a few months. Using content marketing, he has been effectively using the platform to promote his Kwese TV products by writing influential articles that inspire young entrepreneurs across the continent.

We expect his followers to exceed 10 million in 12 months time. He knows where the money is and is moving fast to tap into the huge potential before others join in.

Advantage Diaspora

There are a lot of unlimited opportunities coming from the creating of Facebook boosting and one of the major beneficiaries is the Diaspora. Now you can set up a company in Zimbabwe and quickly get a following, quickly get clients using social media. You can set up an IT company whilst based in South Africa, open offices in Harare and then start vigorous marketing using Facebook Boosting. An amount of $30 per month can ensure that you reach out to hundreds of potential clients in a month.

So promoting a company has been made easy and you can take on some of the big monopolies who will obviously will be slow to take up the use of the platform.

New Talent Required

Since this is a new phenomenon which will soon blossom as everyone joins in, there is going to be huge demand for talented people who can market companies or products on social media. If you are a journalist then you may need to sharpen your skills on social media because your current employer is going to encounter reduced adverting revenue due to Facebook Boosting. You therefore need to follow the band wagon and tailor make your skills to developments on social media.

If you are a young person, then sharpen your skills with social media marketing skills because this is the future. In South Africa we already have adverts for people who will manage social media platforms such as Facebook and Whatsapp. Such adverts may not come to Zim soon by they will be coming from next year onwards.

One just needs to look at the way smart phones are being bought in town, everyone in urban areas is buying a smart phone that enables them to connect to social media. This is the fastest growth sector in the country. An improvement in the economy should witness an explosion in growth and all of this means new opportunities on social media. Its influence will increase beyond the current levels forcing everyone to adopt it.

So research more on Facebook Boosting, do not research or read in isolation, do look at all social media platforms in totality. Do look for trends, compare Zimbabwe and other countries and then do your own projections of what the country will look like in 12 months or 24 months time.

Most  entrepreneurs fear the word business plan. Mention the word business plan and most will lose interest, to some it is a complicated document that is expensive to produce. It is a document that is required for accessing loans only, after getting the loan then you are done, you put the document in a closed filing cabinet.

ZBIN would however like to assist the SME sector to appreciate the importance of business plans. A business plan should not be viewed as an unnecessary document designed with the sole purpose of accessing credit from registered commercial lenders. It is a useful live document which every entrepreneur should embrace-it can be used for day to day business operations!

With time, one can easily learn to develop their own business plan. You may not need a lot of expert advice on it. ZBIN has therefore developed a presentation as per demand from the ZBIN community. Go through the presentation, feel free to download and use it. Next week, we are hoping to do a Facebook Live update on Business Plans-we will upload the video on the page in case you miss it.

The Zimbabwean economy is a complex one, in your analysis you cannot use the one size fits all approach. At face value it looks like no opportunities exist, it looks like all opportunities have been exhausted but if you dig deep you actually find new opportunities where business is thriving.

An analysis of all shopping malls generally show a decline in business. Look at some of the places we have covered on ZBIN such as the Old Mutual owned Highglen and Westgate . These shopping malls are characterised with empty office spaces. Most shops have closed doors and these malls are virtually empty. The Chitungwiza Old Mutual owned mall is doing better than Highglen when it comes to traffic but still the general trend is that of decline.

In Avondale, a new small shopping mall is being constructed a few metres from the Avondale shopping centre and this becomes the only mall being built in the capital. The Village Walk in Borrowdale being the other where CAFE NUSH is completing renovation for new premises.

So in the midst of all this what opportunities does ZBIN want to share with our members and followers? We can say that business is fast changing, the way of doing business or analysing opportunities is fast changing as well. A  look at one of our top articles we covered which looked at top areas where Zimbabweans are spending money revealed that Food is one area where there is no substitute!

Few companies are involved in Dial A Service business in Harare. The few that are involved in this business are enjoying their time in the sunshine! They are fast expanding whilst other areas of the business sector show signs of distress.

The big question

The question maybe how are they doing it? The easy answer to this question lies in who are you targeting? The high net worth class in Harare is now preferring ordering their food and having it delivered at their homes. Great way to avoid traffic congestion and possibilities of meeting the endless traffic roadblocks on our roads. So money saved in terms of fuel and the added advantage of convenience is leading to the growth of this sector which is still dominated by a few monopolies.

Food being delivered is mostly fast foods but there is a growing demand for traditional foods. The costs of running this business is reasonably low with the use of motorbikes which cost an average of $1,000 each. In some cases there is no need to rent premises as this business can be run from the comfort of your home.

Business Research

Do not just jump and try tis business without sufficient business research-unodonha! Take your time to build a clientele base, work with corporates where employees work during the evening such as Banks and Mobile Telecommunication Companies. Research more on companies that are doing well and find out where their employees get lunch or dinner. For now this business is concentrated in the low density areas but areas such as Chishawasha, Glenlorne lack coverage. Universities which house thousands of students provide huge potential too.

ZBIN wishes you best of luck and if you are in the Diaspora worry not, one day when the economy picks up-do expect this area to expand to all the residential areas in urban areas.

A friend of mine called Emmanuel who had been working in the IT field returned to Zimbabwe  from South Africa a few years ago. On his return he realised that there was no facility to send SMS messages to phones whenever one withdraws money from banks. He took of advantage of the expertise he had gained in South Africa and worked with a local bank to introduce the service in Zimbabwe. The facility had been operational in South Africa for a while but Zimbabwe was slow in its uptake.

So this is the huge benefit that the Diaspora possess-access to superior skills, cultures and technology. Some technologies will take decades to reach this side of the equator and the gap creates great opportunities  for those with an entrepreneurial mindset. I remember getting excited when this school in Harare introduced a school app, I thought the school authorities were being innovative. When I checked with friends based in the States, their answer was that this had been introduced many years back!

So for entrepreneurs especially those based in Zim, the message is clear-make sure that you are clued up on latest technological issues. Make sure you know what is in, what is out, what is coming etc. One way to stay up to date is to join forums where they discuss latest business trends, do watch news or read forums such as www.techzim.co.zw. Just make sure you do not miss out as doing so is perilous!

One can take our post on Bitcoin Fraud which we posted in January this year. We had analysed Nigerian Business Groups and realised that Bitcoin fraud was gaining ground. We estimated the fraud to land this side by mid year and we were not wrong at all! The point here is that as an Entrepreneur , one should always be scanning the environment and the environment does not have to be local only-do expand and cover the region, the continent and all the four corners of the globe.

A trend in West Africa will eventually reach Zimbabwe, A trend in India will eventually come this side. In the past it could take decades but these days the time lag has been reduced. So do check out for trends whether they are on risk management or opportunities. Compare and contrast with the current environment in the country and take advantage of the gap.

Scholars of Management Accounting would call this Benchmarking, a topic we will cover in future but for now lets look closely at what the richest man in Zimbabwe did to benefit from benchmarking. He saw a trend in East Africa and moved fast to take advantage, others who were not following events in East Africa obviously lost out.

By Dr Strive Masiyiwa

Understanding business models (Part 2)
__When you see an opportunity, get STARTED! A case study.

I knew it would be the next big thing. It was time to act, and be a “fast follower…”

The product opportunity I saw: Mobile Money. I’d been watching the developments at Kenya’s M-PESA, talking to friends in the industry, reading about it, and had even made a secret visit there to look for myself. I also knew what was happening in other parts of the world, in places like the Philippines and Bangladesh…

First step (to answer one of your questions at the Tanzania Town Hall): Do your homework!

Next step (yes, you’ve heard it before): #People.

I needed a small team of people of highly-motivated entrepreneurial executives. I plucked a guy working for us in Burundi, and asked him to move to Nairobi, the epicenter of this new Mobile Money revolution. He didn’t report to anyone else, except me. Every week he wrote me a report on his observations. Sometimes we would talk for hours on the phone:

“Sir, there are some smart Kenyans I think we can get…”

“Sir, we can get developers from Cape Town. Can I go see them?”

“I have found a guy in Cape Town but he won’t move to Zimbabwe, can I ask HQ to hire him and keep him in Cape Town?”

“Sir, the best platform for us to use is in India. Have made contact. We need to travel to India to see them…”

Months later:

“We have a system up and running in Burundi. It’s small but we’re learning fast…”

“Sir, I have been working with HR’s talent management team. We’re tracking some really smart young people who we think we could recruit and train to run with this. There are also some people in our system who want to try something new…”

__The #People and #Product were coming together nicely.

Next step: #Process.

“We need the ‘Process builders’ to get involved heavily now, because the business plan is looking good!”

“I love it!!”

# Finance systems? Check.
# IT systems? Check.
# Legal systems? Check.
# Marketing? Check.
# Sales? Check.
# Recruitment? Check.
# Distribution? Check.
# Training? Check.
# Logistics? Check.
(What else? You tell me).
Check!!

“Bring on some really experienced talent for process. You can even use consultants. This business will require complex processes for recruiting and managing dealers.”

“We also have a very sensitive product… Money!”

“Sir, our competitor in (x) is rushing to market with a similar service. What should we do, because we’re not ready?!”

“Neither are they, so stay the course. Don’t cut corners, even if it means they get a year’s head start. We’ll beat the pants off anyone who goes into the market with a half-baked idea.”

__Intense meetings took place every day on getting the #Processes right!

Twelve months later:

“Sir, Burundi is looking great. Can we scale to a bigger market now?”

“Not yet. I need to see more data.”

“Bring your team.”

After listening to them: “What do you want to call this great service of yours?”

“Sir, we were thinking to call it EcoCash.”

“I like it. Go ahead.”

Fast forward 10 years:

The executive who set it up is now one of the most senior members of our organization. He runs our financial services business called Cassava Fintech, based in South Africa. Their operations cover every aspect of Mobile Money including Digital Banking, Payment Systems, Mobile Insurance, Remittances, and eCommerce. They are active throughout Africa, and even in the U.K.

__Another question from our Town Hall meeting this week: “If you feel like you want to give up, what do you do?”

There were times when things broke down completely, and crisis meetings. Sometimes I had to fire people who failed or were not up to scratch. Sometimes people resigned or were poached! We lost so much money in the first two years that some of my more senior executives were actually begging me to shut it down. Yes, we almost shut down EcoCash before it took off!

This year the GSMA (the organization representing Mobile Network Operators from around the world), meeting in Barcelona, Spain named EcoCash the best Mobile Money Solution in the World for 2017!

__How did we do it? We kept our focus on the 3Ps.

If you want to find out more about “People, Process and Product” (and much more) go to Kwesé Inc (channel 405 on Kwesé TV). If you want to learn more about Cassava Fintech, visit the website: http://cassavafintech.com.

To everyone who took part in our Tanzania Entrepreneurship Town Hall (from Tanzania, here on this platform, all over Africa and the world via lifestream on FB) and to our hosts in Tanzania: Thank you. I really enjoyed meeting you and look forward to another one soon.

To be continued. . .

The major advantage of being part of the Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network is access to opportunities. The forum with numbers now at 40, 000 members is growing everyday. We are expanding at a rapid pace, connecting with Zimbabweans and Foreign Nationals across the globe. We are slowly becoming the window of opportunities in Zimbabwe for Diaspora and Foreign Nationals. A lot of inquiries  on opportunities in Zimbabwe are coming from all corners and this is good news for the forum and the country as a whole. To date our site has had close to 160, 000 views in 7 months of operation. An important measure of a website effectiveness is a benchmark called Unique Viewers. These are regular viewers of a site who always visit it for information and resources.

Our unique users number has risen to 5,000 and continues to grow as we innovate and bring new ideas and ways of doing business. What is remarkable is the fact that we have achieved all of this without spending a penny on advert and promotion! When we start using a small budget we expect our impact to be 1000 fold. So as a fast growing forum we have a facility for our members and followers to register as consultants.

The facility is available free of charge and you can email vicmunemo@yahoo.com or whatsapp me on +263774081808 if you would like to be on the list of consultants. The list of consultants is our first port of call whenever members inuire about consultant services.

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We give you the latest prices of vegetables from Zimbabwe’s biggest fruit and vegetables market-Mbare Musika. Latest survey results have shown that up to $1 billion circulates in the Mbare Informal sector and this includes Mbare Musika, Siyaso and Mupedzanhamo. The price tracker  comes courtesy of Musika Solutions.

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On paper the Bitcoin Currency is a legitimate currency which is taking the world by storm. A lot of investors have made big monies by investing in this currency. Little is known by the general public of how it operates, how to make money, how you can make losses-who makes losses when you make profits etc. The gap in information has created room for fraudsters who are cashing in on the lack of information by duping unsuspecting members of the public.

The modus operandi for fraudsters is easy and involves the following processes:

1.Fraudster opens a Whatsapp Groups,

2.Targets individuals interested in making quick returns

3. A few people invest funds with him and offers them high interest returns in the first month
4. Those who got high returns recruit more
5. Those newly recruited invest funds and the recruiters reinvest funds plus interest
6. One of two members start complaining about investment overdue
7. The Admin reassures the group that all is inorder
8. More members join the chorus of complaining about funds over due
9. Bombshell dropped on the group as the Admin fails to satisfactorily answer when funds invested will be deposited into members accounts.
10. With temperatures boiling on the group, the admin performs a disappearing act. He removes every member, blocks everyone and deletes the group!

The above modus operandi was in full action last week in the beautiful city of Masvingo where members lost close to $60,000. The method used is detailed below:

Bitcoin Watsapp Group is formed promising members who invest to get an interest of 50% -now surely this is heaven on earth! The first month the few members who had invested money all got interest. So far so good with everyone getting their monies back-excited members not only reinvest funds but go on to recruit their close relatives. Zvikanzi kwaita ngoda uku hama dzinodiwa, huyai huyai tiite mari nekukurumidza.

With total amount invested reaching $60,000 what happens next was to teach Masvingo residence a tough lesson about Bitcoin funds! Everyone in the group was supposed to get their money last week but nothing came. When members started getting vocal and asking for their money, the admin followed point number 7 above. With members not satisfied with answers from the group admin, the admin invoked section 9 above and all hell broke loose.

With everyone in the group realising that they had been conned…they rushed to a mobile money agent to check the authenticity of the person they had been wiring funds to. They also though tat they could possibly have fund transfers reversed.

At the mobile money agent more trouble awaited them-the fraudster had transferred funds to more than 5 accounts….ichibuda umu…yoenda umu..yozoenda uko….a case of someone sophisticated involved in money laundering!

Tracing the movement of the funds was to become a wind chasing event as the fraudster had covered his back in endless funds transfers.

Legitimate programmes tainted by con artists

The essence of this article is not to taint Bitcoin, we have seen it working in other countries. Even in Zim, a lot have benefited from it. What is worrisome is that fraudsters are using the scheme to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.

The same method was used in online forex trading. Members are encouraged to come for training and those who fail to master how online forex trading works are then invited to invest funds with the admin and the whole episodes always ending with tears from group members! This is why ZBIN is always encouraging Online Forex Traders to learn to trade on their own and not give funds to anyone.

Lessons learnt

The trend of online fraud is not going to end any time soon especially with the economy and cash crunch worsening by the day. Last year the MMM collapse resulted in an estimated $6m loss for Zimbabweans. Online Forex Trading was soon to follow with more than a million lost. We get some comfort in the sense that one of the fraudsters who had duped Hararians of $225,000 was arrested. Binary trading also followed and one of the fraudster admins who had vanished with $9,000 was arrested.

In January we cautioned members and told you to grasp Bitcoin with caution as it had started making waves in Nigeria with members of the public falling prey to Bitcoin Investment fraudsters.

In point form we advise all stakeholders to take note of the following:

1.If it is too good to be true, then avoid it-use your gut instinct

2. If you are in an online forex group and the admins answers to the name Blessing or Evangelist, then sickly demand your money back and hit the exit button of the group
3. Most of the platforms are being perpetrated using mobile money platforms. The $6m lost last year was through them, the recent $60,000 was again through them. Are mobile money transfer platform equipped enough to monitor and deter fraudulent activities? How about all money transfer agencies investing a small portion of their profits in public awareness? Surely these companies are making millions of profit-how about $50,000 each company investing in anti fraud awareness programs encouraging members of the public to be wary of online fraudsters? It is $60,000 for Masvingo but how about the whole nation? It could well run into multi millions of dollars!
4. The Fraudster from Masvingo transferred money from one account, then the next, the trend continued. How is this possible? If a bank can programme their system such that one cannot overdraw available funds, how about putting mechanisms that suspend funds transfer when you start moving them from fund to fund within minutes?

There are definitely more points to add above and our hope is that our followers will scrutinise all online opportunities. Some are very good on paper but there will always be con artists looking at loopholes so that they can dupe the public of their hard earned monies.

Below we feature some of the responses from our ZBIN platform

Yemurai Nhongo-Thepe They sent this money to an individual? Vakaita due diligence here vanhu ava?

Numerous Mashv Manduku Chabata Bitcoin rates were very attractive

Rachel Chitongo Haaa zvakaoma, hakuna quick money forex trading is university chaiyo aaaa

Watson Musenda Next time they will play Lotto… Where in the world will you get 50% interest…. How will the investor invest your hard earned money to acquire that profit margin? Even old mutual with a huge investment portfolios will not afford even 10% p. a…let alone 50% per month. Kkkkkkkkkkkk

Mdala Wa Rue Zvakawoma….ko panenge paine vawana mari zve first month lol

Watson Musenda Yes, so that they will tell others boss… I haven’t seen a guy who made money with these “get rich overnight investors” except lotto,Surprisingly they all end up crying, blaming the investor. Why putting money to an entity that is not registered with the Reserve Bank… Why investing through eco cash to a guy whose physical address you don’t know? Why investing to a company who have a one roomed tiny office with an old computer? Lots of red

Kwame Mwemba Thanks for this article.2 years ago l lost thousands in MMM using bit coin that was in SA.Then from nowhere l saw alot of posts on groups from Zimbabwe.l tried to warn people about it and most sent me bad messages and l was even removed from most groups.People must realize there is no such thing as making 50% to 100% within days of investment without working.Hope they catch the guy and post his face on all groups and FB so that he is caught.l hate people who just get peoples money like that .

Israel Zombo Gusalo Why invest in  things u have least knowledge of ? That is ignorance and suicidal -first read,  study check and scrutinise.  

Runyararo Primrose Chandiwana-Munjoma shame ndakamboitambwa it happens Upenyu kupindana kwemazuva

Mary Mathew my sister was duped neimwe inonzi Helping hands international but l had warned her before

For most of my life, I had goals and would get irritated by obstacles that got in my way. I heard a wonderful quote the other day, but don’t recall the original source. The quote went something like this:

Having obstacles in your life is a sign you aren’t settling for what life gives you, but are getting out of life what you want.

In other words, a life without any obstacles is arguably a life live passively. You take whatever comes your way. While there is certainly enormous value in expressing gratitude for what you do get out of life (this is one the keys to happiness by the way), it is still worth striving for what YOU want out of YOUR life.

So my question for you to think about today is:

Do you have enough obstacles in your life?

If not, are you striving for what you want out of life? If yes, be grateful as it’s a sign you are striving for what you want out of life. You might not get what you want, but if you don’t try at all you are guaranteed to not get what you want.

Here’s another way to look at it.

Using the logical construct of cause vs. effect, there are two ways to view the world:

• The world is the cause, and you are its effect.
• You are the cause, and the world is the effect.

Here’s my second and final question for today:

Which paradigm are you viewing your life and the world through?

Thanks,

Have you seen the number of followers that Dr Strive Masiyiwa has on Facebook? He has millions of followers and has become the most influential African on Facebook! The reason for the followers is simple-Business! Africans want platforms where they discuss business, they want platforms where they are inspired by their business role models. They want to learn about entrepreneurship and there are few platforms for this.

Masiyiwa has therefore seen a gap and is enjoying sharing information through posts and recently Facebook Live broadcasts. He is always ahead of the curve and one needs to look at the people he is targeting and you want to know about them? They are youths, young people with a lot of energy, young people full of ambition, young people who are not afraid of taking risks. The future of business in Africa lies in Youth! If you are not targeting youths then you are missing the point. If you are dismissing youths then there is something totally wrong with your strategy.

Even political parties in Zimbabwe that are campaigning for the 2018 elections are targeting youths! We have witnessed a couple of youth rallies and at these rallies young musicians perform popular music genres such as Zimdancehall. On the Christian movement, one cannot escape the waves caused by popular young preachers such as Pastor Makandiwa and Pastor Magaya! The most popular musician in Zimbabwe at the moment is a youngster by the name Jah Prayzer who has relegated established musicians to second and other lesser positions on the music scene.

Youths are slowly taking over and they represent the future. If you operate a company in Zimbabwe and in your management structures you exclude youths then expect to lose competitive advantage in future. Most of your consumers are youths or are soon going to be youths and if you do not capture their feelings, if you do not capture their communication channels then you are a sure bet for failure in the long run. Population analysis puts the percentage of youths at 67% in the country and the numbers could be growing. This helps to explain the attention to youths by Zimbabwe’s most influential business person.

Dr Strive Masiyiwa has youths in mind and through his posts he inspires and also markets his Kwese Tv programme. Those of us who love marketing know that he is doing what is called content marketing! If he writes exclusively about Kwese Tv then few will be interested….he however inspires, educates and then throw in Kwese Tv at the end of his articles. Now that’s being a business genius and expect us to tackle content marketing in future which is still to be grasped by a lot of Zimbabweans.

The South African Connection

This week witnessed ZBIN featuring an article by a South African lady based in East London. The article on ‘how to open and run a restaurant business ekasi’ The post attracted more than 600 views and shocked the writer, Ms Siviwe. She had never written an article that got published and what had happened was that we collected the information that she was sharing on one of our groups and compiled a story. A good story that helps to inspire a lot of women interested in starting businesses.

I remember her fears when she said ‘But iam far, based in East London?’ Our response was simple-business nowadays knows no boundaries. Talent also knows no boundaries and what a way to start writing and you get 600 views with your first article! What is also happening is that the ZBIN brand is nolonger restricted to Zimbabwe as more than 500 South Africans visited our site to read an article that was relevant to them. ZBIN now has 1000 South African citizens on our Whatsapp groups, they discuss South African issues, they write articles for themselves…ZBIN only comes in to facilitate and providing a platform. We are also playing our part in a small way to help promote the future of business in Africa, the future that involves a lot of young people who are not afraid to break boundaries.

ZBIN Online TV

We have 2 new business newspapers coming and the reason is simple…..The Future is in Business! Two weekly publications will be hitting the streets in the coming few weeks to months. This is great news for the nation and ZBIN wishes them well.

On a related note, we have been doing Facebook Live Updates and seem to be improving each time. Each update has attracted more than 400 views and the numbers are increasing. We do not have studio equipment for the live updates but this is not a worry at all. Our intention is to provide our members and followers with up to date business or opportunities information. The live update is going to be a weekly event where we will cover various topics such as business registrations, opportunities in Zimbabwe, Running your business, Women in Business and a lot of other business issues.

The updates will include the Diaspora too so that they can share information on various topics as per request by our community. This should be a game changer in the area of entrepreneurship in Zimbabwe. We will use the platform mostly for updates and capacity building of SMEs. A cost effective method which does not cost a lot of money and we hope to improve and attract more than 10,000 per each broadcast session by the end of the year. Our volunteers will also use the platform to provide training and this will be a welcome move as there will be no need to hire venues or use money for travelling. Another first from Zimbabwe, young people showing that Zimbabwe got talent. Whilst Dr Strive Masiyiwa is making an impact on the continent, ZBIN is making a mark locally and regionally.

What is up this week?

A facebook live update from Vee in South Africa: She explains how to run a business in South Africa. We also make follow ups on a story of Bitcoin Fraudsters in Zimbabwe. Do expect an article on Face Book boosting. We encourage you not to miss the Facebook Boosting article as it is the new ‘in thing’ in the country. A number of companies are turning to Facebook Boosting and even political parties are turning to it too. We may even do a live update of this, do check progress on this during the week.

The Beira trip preparations are ongoing, all is now in order for a chance of forum members to critically analyse opportunities that exist in Beira. We would like to know how other Zimbabweans are doing it there. There is little written about Beira by Zimbabweans and we hope to be the first to write about it and also tap into opportunities that exist there. The distance from Harare to Beira is 457 kilometres and it is roughly the same distance from Harare to Bulawayo.

A lot of our members based in South Africa have been inquiring about company registrations. We welcome the need to register your companies, great move that will benefit you in the long run. Banks or funders generally prefer to work with  registered companies. So if you are looking forward to growth then consider becoming professional and registering your company. An extra advantage is that one can now do the registration online!

Below we feature an article compiled by the Entrepreneur Magazine and share it with our South African members or Zimbabweans in South Africa interested in registering their businesses.

Since 1 May 2011, the Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office (CIPRO) ceased to exist and was replaced by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). The New Companies Act came into being at the same time, changing the way business owners register their companies.

The Act stipulates that no new close corporations (CC) can be registered, but those registered prior to 1 May can continue to operate as CCs.

Registering your company

The Companies Act provides for two categories of companies, namely non-profit and profit companies. Each of the different business entities under these categories has specific requirements in terms of the documentation that is required.

1Types of entities

Non-profit companies:

• A company incorporated for public benefit or another object relating to one or more cultural or social activities, or communal or group interests.
• The income and property are not distributable to its incorporators, members, directors, officers or persons related to any of them.

Profit companies:

• Profit companies are categorised as companies without restrictions on the transferability of their shares and that do not prohibit offers to the public (larger public companies), and companies that do contain restrictions on the transferability of their shares and that prohibit offers to the public (smaller private companies).
• They may take one of four different forms: a personal liability company, a state-owned company, a public company and a private company.

Personal liability companies:

• The directors and past directors are jointly liable with the company for any debts and liabilities arising during their periods in office.
• The company name ends with the word ‘incorporated’.

State-owned companies:

• This is a company defined as a ‘state-owned enterprise’ or a company owned by a municipality.
• The names of a state-owned company must end with the expression ‘SOE Ltd’

Public companies:

• The definition of a public company is largely unchanged.
• The only difference is that a public company now only requires one member for incorporation compared to seven members in the past.

Private companies:

• While comparable to private companies under the old Act, these are similar to previous close corporations.
• Some of the changes made to private companies include fewer disclosure and transparency requirements, no longer being limited to 50 shareholders, and a board that must comprise at least one director.
• The name of a private company must end with the expression ‘Proprietary Limited’ or ‘(Pty) Ltd’.

2Documentation

A company is incorporated by the lodging of a Notice of Incorporation (CoR 14.1) and Memorandum of Incorporation (CoR 15.1 A-E). These forms are available for download from the CIPC’s website.

Memorandum of Incorporation:

The Memorandum of Incorporation (MoI) contains the following information:

1. Details of incorporators
2. Number of directors or alternate directors
3. Share capital (maximum issued)

Notice of Incorporation:

The Notice of Incorporation, which is lodged with the MoI, contains the following information:

1. Type of company
2. Incorporation date
3. Financial year-end
4. Registered address (main office)
5. Number of directors
6. Company name
7. Whether the company name will be the registration number
8. The reserved name and reservation number
9. List of four names to be checked by the Commission

Supporting Documents:

To register a private company you will complete either a CoR 15.1A (for a standard private company) or a CoR 15.1B (for a customised private company) and a CoR 14.1. The supporting documents required include:

• Certified ID copies of all indicated initial directors and incorporators
• Certified ID copy of applicant if not the same as one of the indicated initial directors or incorporators
• If an incorporator is a juristic person, a power of attorney is required for the representative authorised to incorporate the company and sign all related documents
• If another person incorporates the company and signs all related documents on behalf of any of the incorporators and initial directors, a power of attorney and certified ID copy of the person is required
• If a name was reserved before filing of incorporation documents, a valid name reservation document is necessary

Fees: The basic filing fee is R175. According to Elsabie Conradie, head: Communication, marketing and stakeholder relations for CIPC, a private company can be registered within one day if the company registers without reserving a name first.

3Register online

The CIPC’s website allows business owners to register their companies online. Once you are ± registered as a CIPC customer you will be able to access the transactional website. After you have logged in, look for the ‘New Companies’ link under the ‘Companies’ tab.

Credit:Entrepreneur