Diaspora Matters

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

I remember attending a breakfast seminar hosted by the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce last year in November. The breakfast seminar was about the introduction of the Bond Notes onto the market by the Reserve Bank. I remember the governor Dr John Mangundya speaking passionately about 3 issues affecting the country. He said the Bond Note is not the main issue but a symptom of other issues that needed to be addressed and these are:

1. lack of exports leading to a huge trade deficit
2. The high and unsustainable government expenditure spend on salaries. At the time the government wage bill was 90% of the total government revenue
3. Lack of foreign direct investment in the country

So the Bond Note was not really an issue, the issues that need to be addressed are the 3 mentioned above and they cannot be solved in isolation as there are a lot fundamentals that need to be resolved.

The Bond Note was introduced as an export incentive with a 5 % premium to attract more exports, attract more diaspora remittance infows and also help solve the cash crisis. It is exactly 8 months after the introduction of the currency what is the verdict?

We do not have statistics to analyse the effectiveness of the Bond Note in attracting diaspora remittances or helping to drive export growth but we do have evidence of the cash crisis situation. The cash crisis situation is still with us, infact it has worsened because some banks have stopped disbursing cash altogether on certain days.

The Reserve Bank has used $160 million of the Afrexim bank Facility and only $40 million worth of Bond Notes is left. If they withdraw the remaining funding, will the cash problems suddenly disappear? We do not think so, even if they bring another $200 million, the problem will still remain and the reason is simple….the cash will not solve the 3 issues that t Dr Mangudya mentioned above.

In comes the Cash Barons

The aim of this article is to look at the cash problem which has been exacerbated by cash barons. So far no official information is available as to who they are and our assumption is that the RBZ is not involved in the market like what happened during the 2008 era.

The cash barons are back in full swing and are now found everywhere especially in the city centre. Some are moving around with mobile swipe machines. If you fail to access cash at the bank as has become the norm for the majority of people, all you need to do is to approach cash barons who will give you cash at a premium ranging from 10% to 15%.

If you would like to withdraw $100 from your bank and would like to get cash then you are expected to do a bank transfer of $110 or $115 to cash barons.

Who bears the cash premium?

If it is a company that is in the retail sector that has been charged the $10 premium above then it has to pass on the cost to the consumer! This is a slow beginning of USD inflation and already the IMF team has mentioned the inflationary pressure emanating from the current cash premiums.

Effect on Exports

The cost of production is obviously affected as companies raid the informal sector to access cash especially hard currency. The obvious effect is the lack of competitive prices of our exports on the international market. Exports are part of the 3 issues already mentioned above which the RBZ is passionate about.

Will cash barons stop?

Cash barons are not going to stop anytime soon. Discussing the issue within the ZBIN platform,we actually found out that selling cash is now a source of livelihoods for some. A visit to Road Port shows that the number of cash barons has increased, it is the same with EastGate and a number of offices in town have been converted into cash selling points. Every business Whatsapp group has someone with cash looking for buyers or sellers.

Cash buying and selling has therefore become a cancer which will be difficult to weed out. What is worrisome is that the premiums started at 5% then rose to 10% and up to 15%. The question that is of concern is what will be the next rate? A rise from 10% to 15%? Will the new limit rise to 25%? What will be the effect of a 25% on local prices? What will be the effect on exports?

Why do people need to withdraw cash anyway?

The argument has been why do people need to withdraw cash? Why not just swipe, why not go electronic like other countries? What has been missing is that our business sector is 70% informal. Most transactions require cash and those with cash get preferential treatment or terms. Even in supermarkets, those with cash can skip long queues and join fast express tills. The majority of the population lives in rural areas and they need cash. Once more cash is King and if you do not have it you face double prices than one with hard cash. The demand for cash is therefore getting higher every day.

Tracking the cash barons

One school of thought is that those selling cash are doing the industry a favour because they are simply fulfilling a need. There is a gap in the market and those who are entrepreneurial should be commended for their efforts. Some are even calling for the regularisation of the informal money changers through establishment of Bureau De Changes.

Our different school of thought is that cash barons are responsible for the cash shortages! By selling cash, you are pouring paraffin onto a raging fire. You are stoking the fires of inflation which will consume everyone in the long run. You are being selfish and certainly to not care about the long run implications of your actions!

In 2008 most cash dealers used cash which made tracking difficult. In 2017 the situation is better, they are using formal banking system thereby making tracking easy! The Reserve Bank simply need to encourage members of public to come forward with evidence of transferring funds to cash barons. Provide incentives of say $40 for everyone who has transferred funds to cash barons and they will be overwhelmed with evidence.

As mentioned at the start of the article, the assumption is that the apex bank is not involved in these activities. The downside of this move maybe driving the cash barons deeper underground and thereby driving up premiums. Some skipping tracking my move to neighbouring countries as is the case where the Bond Note is now traded as far as Maputo.

In conclusion we hope the RBZ which is drafting the midterm monetary policy will look at the issues we have discussed. The cash situation needs to be addressed, a holistic approach to solve it need to be adopted. It is 8 months after the introduction of the Bond Note and already premiums have shot up to 15%. We hope to hear measures that will reduce these premiums. ZBIN encouraged our members and the SME sector to embrace Bond Notes when they were introduced and we are looking forward to continue doing so as long as correct measures are taken to address current cash accessibility challenges.

The ZBIN forum is a strong business community that includes all nationalities. We have nationalities from India, Uganda, Ghana, Namibia, Malaysia, Mozambique, Botswana and South Africa. We even have 50 followers from Manila in Phillipines who follow the forum on a daily basis. Indian nationalities interested in business in Africa have been slowly coming to the forum  and now stand at more than 500.

We have 2 business App groups for foreign nationals and they include South Africa (1,000) and  Malawi (200). All of the groups help to provide a platform for business discussions and networking. In the case of South Africa, ZBIN members will be carrying out more trainings as we help our members to expand their businesses across the rainbow nation.

Below we feature one of our correspondents based in East London, Siviwe Vava Melane. Known as Vava or Vee, her clan name is Mamhkhomazi, owner of LLikwezi Trading, Mbokodo Indaba Foundation and Hotplate Catering Deco and Events. She can be contacted on +27 833 318 9 219

How to start restaurant business

Before you even think of where you will run your business guys you must know the type of food that you want to serve. Yaz in the townships where we grew up in, there were only 3 types of businesses, spaza shops, the shebeen and lamama who sells fish, amagwinya, tripe and has an occasional stand se vegetables. When it comes to… food people or customers are very loyal. That’s why those fat cakes produced graduates.

I remember an interesting event that happened in 1997  when I visited the University of Zimbabwe inorder to collect MBA application form. On my way going out of the campus I was stopped by security guards at the exit gate. The  security guards in green uniform started searching my car and asking me questions such as where i had purchased my spare car battery and whether i had receipts to prove purchase. I tried my best to comply since I had nothing to hide but the whole process delayed my exit from the campus by more than 10 minutes. Every car leaving the campus was facing similar searches leading to a long queue of cars and i thought this was unnecessary! I asked myself whether cars leaving Harvard or Oxford University campuses would face the same treatment?

I became curious of this arrangement and started an unofficial research project on internal controls and risk management. My project included establishing risk management practices at the oldest institute of higher education in the nation. After a few weeks of study, my fears were confirmed….the university had poor risk management practices.

The institute receiving a lot of public funds did not have an internal audit department! For internal controls and risk management, they relied on external audits and of course the security guards who were searching vehicles. On realising this weakness , I wrote a brilliant article highlighting the need to improve risk management at the university-the article was published by a popular daily. The good news is that university immediately took action and set up an internal audit department to beef up risk management practices. I have not made any follow ups but would like to believe that the situation is much better with the internal audit department having oversight of all college funds and resources right from the Bursar Department up to Faculty Offices.

In this article, Iam back again at colleges not looking at risk management issues but an important area of university researches. In Zimbabwe, every university student must produce a research project which must be presented to lecturers during the final year at college. This applies to under graduate and post graduate students as well-there is just no escape, one must be equipped with hands-on research writing and analysis skills.

A number of brilliant researches do come from students and some are worldclass! I remember during my college days where I had a  friend called Tineyi. Whilst everyone was busy writing projects to do with Accounting, Tineyi had other ideas. He was designing an accounting system which he presented to the lecturer for marking. Everyone in our class presented hard copies of projects bound in a book form but Tineyi submitted a hard copy of his project plus a disk containing  his accounting program which he had designed.

Iam not sure whether our Accounting lecturer knew how the accounting program worked or he just gave the brilliant student a distinction without fully appreciating how the accounting software was designed. Tineyi was simply ahead of his time and iam sure that it is going to take several decades before another accounting student at my former college develops an accounting software as part of final year projects.

Universities letting the nation down

Most research projects are filed in universities storerooms after submission and marking. After hard work by students and marking by lecturers , the project is stored in a dark room and this will be the end of usefulness of the project. Sometimes students interested in knowing how to write projects may retrieve old projects in order to familiarise themselves with project writing guidelines and after a few years these projects are taken to the university inferno for burning.

In this article the intention is clear-lets effectively use knowledge generated by young and brilliant minds from the nation. Instead of storing hard copies in dark storerooms, how about selecting a few brilliant projects and uploading on university websites? More than 30, 000 college students graduate every year in Zimbabwe. How about uploading a few hundreds onto each university website so that the nation can benefit by reading top class researches by our students?

A lot of Zimbabweans are looking for information on various topics such as Health, Law, Agriculture, Engineering, Business and other areas but there is very little information that is accessible. The information that can help the nation is lying somewhere in a dark room or worse-it could have been burnt!

Recommendation

Universities should take advantage of the abundance of researches that are being carried out within campuses. Realistically they cannot upload every research produced by everyone, they can however choose the best, those that got distinction marking and upload them onto their sites for use by the whole nation. The corporate sector provides a lot of support to students who will be doing researches. I have assisted a lot of youngsters carrying out surveys or Corporate Governance, Management Accounting and Financial Analysis. After giving them information they just disappear and i never get to know what became of the surveys or research project.

College students are getting information for research from the local industry; they must come back and present results. They may not be able to physically present the results but universities can upload the researches for download. They can do this for free or even charge a certain amount so that they can cover the cost of administration.

With modern management practices requiring evidence decision making, the need for researches and analysis in Zimbabwe cannot be overemphasized. The nation needs researches and the good thing is that thousands of researches are being produced with some of them world-class. All that is required is for local universities to improve on documentation and then meet the demands of all stakeholders. In the case of the Small to Medium Scale Enterprises, we have to rely on surveys and researches done by institutions such as IMF, World Bank or World Bank. It is disheartening to read stories of a visiting World Bank delegation that will be coming to carry out researches on the business sector in Zimbabwe. They should just complement what we already have and not be constantly visiting the nation to help us with researches and analysis.

Do these visits by international delegations mean that the nation lacks talent? I do not think so, there is an abundance of talent especially within our universities. The only area that needs improvement is the documentation part. With students now submitting soft copies, the documenting and uploading part is now easier than before. Uploading a reviewed research project takes 2 minutes!

The hope is that local colleges will move with time and take advantage of emerging technologies and especially their websites to engage with the community they serve and deliver relevant skills and researches. Student research projects should not be taken to the incinerator before analysing whether there is a demand for it because you could be burning innovative projects such as Tineyi’s accounting software which would have become Zimbabwe’s first local accounting software produced by a university student.

Talent Chawapiwa is no doubt the biggest talent of the recent COSAFA tournament. Many are asking where this talented man was all along? A good passer of the ball, this speedy and  skilful player should have been crowned the player of the tournament! He came with no less than 4 goals assists and also scored 2 brilliant goals and capped the tournament with a man of the match award on the final match which was won by Zimbabwe.

He chose the COSAFA tourney to show the nation and the world at large the talent that abounds in the country! Many questions are being asked by many soccer fans and the first one is ‘Where was Talent all along?’ Why was he not showcasing all of these skills at club level? Surely had he been included in the warriors team that played Liberia, perhaps we could have added our goal tally to 4 or 5?

Inorder to answer the question of where Talent was, we will quote soccer legend and analyst Alois Bunjira who has this to say about the talented Talent:

‘At FC Platinum Chawapiwa plays in gear number 5 at 200km/h while the other players are in gear 3 at 80km/h.He goes with the ball forward …and finds noone in support..and has to turn back.That assist for Mushure, I am sure at FC Platinum the closest player supporting him would still be in the centre circle jogging forward.He is then forced to dribble backwards…..and some people see it as he is not playing well. At FC they cannot compliment his pace’

The talented talent is not being used effectively at club level because of his lightning speed and superb talent. These are the weaknesses that were observed by the Warriors coach Sunday Chidzambwa, he corrected the weaknesses by ensuring that Talent had support whenever he rushed into the penalty box. The result is the brilliant performance of 4 goal assists, 2 goals and a man of the match performance in the final game against our rivals north of Zambezi.

Lessons learnt for Entrepreneurs

You may be another Talent Chawapiwa, brilliant ideas-full of innovation but lack supportive systems of an enabling environment. We have seen this with a number of talented youngsters who are developing brilliant Apps which are finding no takers. One such App was developed by a youngster who is a member of this forum. He developed an App that helps to solve the issue of poultry farmers who face problems of marketing their chickens. The App developed helps to connect farmers with potential buyers. If you would like chickens, you simply log in and connect with various chicken farmers with chickens for sale.

How has been the response by the market? The response has been lukewarm-few took notice, few registered and we are sure that the youngster should be a disappointed man. Here was a free service to help the nation with marketing problems so why few takers? The reason for this response is simple-the youngster is in the same situation with Talent, as Alois Bunjira puts it’ travelling at 200km/hr in gear 5 whilst everyone is travelling at 80km/hr in gear number 3.

Does this mean you have to reduce speed? No, not at all….keep shining, keep flying high, keep innovating. The rest of the nation maybe taking time to appreciate Apps but they soon will with time. He has already assessed the problems with uptakes of Apps and its time to go back to the drawing board. Did he market it well? Did he involve the users of the innovation? Did he work with poultry producers, poultry farmers associations? Did he approach poultry companies for possible partnerships?

All of these questions will help him relaunch the Mobile App and ensure that it is well marketed and received by users. His time will definitely come like what Talent recently did in South Africa at the COSAFA Tourney.