Diaspora Matters

Sometimes we get this question-‘Does Online Forex Trading involve going to Roadport and trade forex?’ The answer is that Online Forex Trading is not dealing in currency the illegal way. The basics for online forex trading involve you investing a lot of your time in learning about Online Forex Trading by visiting websites such as www.babypips.com. You can also search on Youtube about Online Forex Trading.

After reading material posted on www.baypips.com the next stage is for you to try online forex trading on a demo account. You assess your level of confidence before going live trading online forex.

Mind you, its not a get rich scheme but it is providing reliable income to some who have mastered it. The trick is to be part of a community that is involved in the trade. The good news is that we do have a community of more than 200 members who are trading or learning how to trade.

Before sending a request to join our group there is one requirement for you-take your time to study the attached manual. The last thing we would like is for someone to ask us what online forex trading is-you have to to know the basics and we have provided the basics on this site for you.

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download

ZBIN conducted 2 free sessions for more than 30 members, Online Forex Trading costs $150 but your favourite business forum provided the training free of charge. Members trained are already learning how to trade on the demo accounts before going live.

Our next stop on free online forex trading is Chinhoyi and lastly Bulawayo. It is strictly per request from our members-also take into consideration that this is not our core business so we help here and there whenever we can find time.

When i was in upper 6 I did the unthinkable, I asked for my own piece of land from my grand mother Mbuya Munemo! I had seen the value of land at a young age and decided to have my own piece of land before going to college. The question my grand mum asked was why i wanted land when i was not yet married, she added another question-why i wanted land at such a young age.

I did my best to explain that i was investing for the future and also the fact that noone had an interest in the land, no current grand son or daughter had interest in the land. To make matters worse a prominent banker was eying our ancestral land. To cut to the chase i got my own 5 hectares before enrolling for my Accounting Degree at a local university.

I had seen value in the land at a young age, the land was close to a reliable water source, our rural area is a 40 minute drive from the Mutoko Road toll gate-i did not make sense to me why most people were shunning the land. What also inspired my acquisition was the fact that my late grand father who had passed one before  i was born had an interesting story to tell about land.

My late grand father had moved from his area of birth, Gora in Mhondoro in search of land for his big family. He had done a lot to secure land for each child. Unfortunately when he passed on, most of his kids left for the city and few valued rural land. So i was the only muzukuru who carried on with the dream of my grand parents-full utilisation of rural land!

What businesses can you do with rural land?

Some Hararians are involved in a lot of agricultural activities in the peri urban areas such as Seke,Goromonzi, Domboshava, Chihota and Musana. We hope to carry out a detailed  study of these areas but most residents are involved in commercial activities that range from chicken rearing, rabbit rearing, piggery, cattle fattening. Some are involved in agro-processing activities and those with large pieces of land grow various crops such as maize, sugar beans, tomatoes, onions and cabbages.

Some are even setting up green houses especially in areas such as Domboshava and Goromonzi. What has enabled this investment is the availability of transport and a ready market of agricultural products in Harare.

We even have lorries that come to farmers inorder to help them ferry agricultural produce to the market. Long back it used to be farmers looking for transport, now the trend is reversing.

The availability of solar energy has also facilitated the expansion of agricultural activities because now people can sink boreholes and use solar energy to irrigate crops. The solar energy can also be used to provide light and other services to the household.

Below we feature an inbox request from one of our members. The responses covered are from our active members on our ZBIN Facebook Page.

Hello Admin, I hope i find you well. Please post for me on the forum… Im looking for an income generating idea on a 6 acre plot in a rural area quite a distance from an urban area but close to a seasonal water source.

Responses

Edson Chivanga What do you have in mind and how much knowledge do have for that so that we can start from there. In business every idea can give you a good outcome but the best one comes out of what you enjoy most and we can give you ideas to grow that vision.

Vokal DaPoet Depending on soil structure, there are a number of things that one can plant.

Rutendo Faith lavener
roses
aloe vera
ginger
tumeric
ginseng
coconut trees
strawberries
hazvina kuwandirwa especially if u have good capital plus soil will determine

Mai Mrehwa ginseng takes years to grow n be selleable

Penyai Rotai nhai anotenga aloe vera ndiyani

Rutendo Faith u try pharmaceutical companies nevanogadzira mishonga and herbs

Mudiwavashe Kamoto I like the plants outlined by Rutendo Faith koz sometimes zvoda kubuda mugurumwandira kuty uite mari. Kwete kungowa TOMATOES.

Justice Mungwini WHERE exactly z the plot…WHAT exactly do you mean by ‘seasonal water source’….HOW much capital u wanna invest…WHAT re others in that area doing…

Mudiwavashe Kamoto Above everything do yu have the calling in farming.Farming is a passionate venture it has to be something that comes from yur heart it’s not something you can do becoz others are making money out of it. Take yur tyme to do a self examination. It may sound weird but I tell yu. Yu just need to go on yur planning table

Do watch out for a television programme produced by your favourite business forum. The business programme titled ‘ Identify an Opportunity’ the aim of the programme is to help Zimbabweans to be able to identify opportunities in their local environments.

You do not need to have someone coming from your area to identify opportunities or even worse-to take advantage of opportunities that exist in your area. Grab opportunities that exist in your community! If you do not then someone else will….its as simple as that.

Identifying opportunities should be a skill that we should all possess. Putting together the opportunity into a viable business plan is the next stage with finding funding being the last.

We therefore hope to help Zimbos with the skill of identifying opportunities and we believe that it is going to be fun and will involve Zimbabweans from all walks of lives including the Diaspora community too.

To help illustrate the concept 3 weeks ago we were at Makoni Shopping Centre, we had briefly stopped at the centre whilst waiting for someone to show us directions to the Holiness Revival Church where we were scheduled to carry out a business presentation.

We gave ourselves a challenge-Identify opportunities at Makoni Shopping Centre in 3 minutes!

In 3 minutes to assess the state of the economy and predictions of the future, to have knowledge of the population of Chitungwiza and their needs. In 3 minutes to assess the level of competition at the centre and find out what is missing and also whether it is viable.

Guess what we came up with?

Our answer is Herbal Shop .

A herbal shop would be ideal because according to our last survey, Health Spending is amongst the top 6 areas where Zimbos are spending monies on. The centre has several pharmacies which only sell modern medicine. There is no shop concentrating on herbal medicine, a neat and presentable shop that sells herbs to Chitungwiza residents.

If we had more time at the centre we believe that we could have come up with more opportunities. So how did we identify this opportunity in 3 minutes? The answer is simple-we have trained ourselves to identify opportunities, identifying opportunities now run in our DNA and now we are going for speed, how many opportunities can you identify in record time?

We would like the nation to enjoy in the fun of identifying opportunities and a tv programme will do the trick. So watch for more details as we put all logistics in place.

I am sure at some point we all have gone into, passedor at the very least parked near  our local farming input hardware shop and noticed the seedling vendors often manning the pavements selling seedlings of tomatoes, onions , cabbages etc. That’s a business that almost anyone can get into with minimal resources, however if you want to run this business profitably then I suggest you go through this article as we speak about running a plant nursery business on a semi commercial to commercial basis and earning that extra dollar for you and your family.

Who can run a nursery?

The answer is quite simple, anyone can run a nursery business this includes you, the key factors like any other business are determination, skill and persistence. I will admit it may be a bit challenging at first as you might not have the pre requisite skill to rear seedlings successfully, in such a case it becomes vital to invest in attending that nursery management training workshop or simply have your workers trained on nursery management by a professional agronomist believe me it pays at the end of the day.

Who will I sell to?

The purpose of this article is to equip you with information so that you shift from seedling street vending for those who are already in the business to becoming a commercial seedling producer. You will be surprised that most commercial fresh produce farmers do not have nurseries on their farms and rely on purchasing seedlings or simply outsourcing their seedlings from reputable suppliers due to various reasons ranging from quality to cost cutting measures. Therefore it is very important to actively market your services and products to this market.

Which crops seedlings can I produce?

Depending on the season and market you can produce a wide variety of seedlings for the market. Onions and cabbages are ideal this time of the year as they can be grown well during this time of the year in Zimbabwe despite the winter season the list is endless. Another crop which can be grown and has great returns when sold as seedlings is the “golden leaf”,  tobacco seedling which by the way if you intend to transplant as irrigated crop in September/October the first week of June is the best time to plant the seeds in the nursery.

How much will I need to start up?

The positive thing about nursery production is the reduced labour costs as one or two people are required to effectively run a nursery catering for seedlings covering 50-100 hectares. The ultimate startup cost will depend on the method used in your nursery. I usually encourage  clients to shift from the conventional seed bed method to the advanced hydroponics systemwhich has the advantage of producing even sized seedlings, easy fertilization, easy pest management, easy water management. It will cost about 700 USD to set up, this includes the trays and liquid fertilisers that are used. I do admit this is a steep figure but let me make it clear that this is a once off investment which will pay you back in the long run. It takes usually 4 – 5 weeks to produce seedlings for most vegetables with each seedling sold between5c – 10c and producing a minimum of 20 000 seedlings that translates to about 2 000 USD  and then deducting variable costs you profit  800 – 1 000 USD minimum that’s a nice extra dollar every 5 weeks. Make sure to visit this page during the week for a detailed article on the hydroponics system.

How much space do I need?

Your own back yard can be used as a nursery  provided there is enough sunlight reaching the area. To produce 20 000 seedlings you may need only 50 m x 1 m that’s pretty manageable.

What challenges must I expect?

Like any business there is some risk involved, the major challenge that most farmers who are into this business face is quality issues , this is greatly reduced with the hydroponics system as well as employing skilled labour to produce your seedlings. The other challenge is that of finding a  reliable market, if you are just starting this business it is advisable to start small, start by selling to your friends, church mates, schools, small scale farmers etc, in the process you build yourself a reputation and business grows.

How best can I market my seedlings ?

I am not a marketing specialist but experience has taught me that a good reputation will attract good business.  A good reputation involves delivering the seedlings on the agreed date and producing quality seeds and most importantly don’t cheat the customer. I have come across a very interesting model were by the nursery produces seedlings which are paid for in advance by the farmer on a rotational basis or depending on your relationship with the farmer , the  nursery produces the seedlings and farmer is contracted to pay upon sale of produce at an agreed interest rate.

Emmanuel D.N Dube is the senior agronomist at Agro Aid Trust and Chief Agronomist at ZIBN. If you have any questions you can email him agroaidtrustzimbabwe@gmail.com/+263783 495 396

In an interview carried by The Sunday Mail today, interesting facts came up. The Ministry of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises and Cooperatives Development carried out  small survey in Mbare where they established that Mbare has a daily circulation of $1 million dollars. Interesting isn’t it? To some of us this is not new because in 2015 The Standard once carried a story where it was discovered that Mbare Musika generated $24 million in revenue in 2014.

The latest survey covers Mupedzanhamo, Siyaso and Mbare Musika.One million is no child’s play and the interesting thing about it is that we even have big companies participating on the vegetable markets with some offloading poultry eggs on  a daily basis.

We  hope to follow up on this story in the coming months and find out who the big players are at Mbare markets.

Cabbage, known on the streets as “Musoro wembudzi” or “ Inhloko” in vernacular is quite popular with most vegetable vendors and ultimately consumers. Cabbage has an amazingly huge demand with over 200 000 heads of cabbage being sold each day collectively across various markets in Harare, to the business minded farmer this translates to thousands of dollars in profit and hence is a great business opportunity as the crop is one of the easiest to grow and less demanding in terms of resources.

When is the best time to grow cabbages?

Cabbages can be grown all year round in Zimbabwe generally, but the best time to grow cabbages with ultimate profits is during the winter season, May – July however try to make sure that severe winter temperatures catch the crop when it is now mature as seedlings are prone to frost damage and mature plants can withstand temperatures as low as -3 degrees. Winter period is appropriate as cabbage fetches one of the best prices during this time, 50c to 80c/ head average size. Usually volumes are generally low during winter pushing the prices up and the farmer should take advantage of this and move volumes. On the technical side during winter time your agro chemicals bill is less by 36 % which translates to thousands of dollars saved as compared to cropping in summer.

How much do I need to start up?

Perhaps before I get into the numbers business that we are all interested in, it is best to emphasize that one needs to employ experienced staff members or at least have the workers trained by a professional agronomist prior to cropping in order to maximize on quality. On average an investment of 4 000 USD/ha is required this includes variable costs. I know most of you reading this article by now are saying 4 000 USD is a bit steep, wait a minute there is a positive side for every dollar invested expect between 4 – 6 USD in return. In simpler terms you invest 4 000 expect roughly about 10 000 -12 000 USD after taking into consideration possible losses this is a good figure which should send you smiling to the bank.

How important is quality in cabbage production?

Quality is of utmost importance when growing cabbages this is what will make a difference in terms of the farmer making a profit or a loss. A good example we always tell our clients at Agro Aid Trust is that for every cabbage head that has a coin size hole due to pest damage is equivalent to 1 cent reduction in potential price. This point just stresses the importance of a good pest management program when growing cabbages going back to the issue of experienced staff being crucial.

How long does it take before I harvest?

This depends on your choice of variety, early maturing 75 -85 days, medium 75- 110 days and late maturing 80-120 days roughly. Most farmers prefer the early maturing variety and the most common amongst our farmers is the early maturing variety Starke Eyre’s Star 3311 hybrid which has outstanding yield properties meaning in three months’ time you will be able reap the rewards meaning that within a space of 1 year you can crop 4 times on the same piece of land which translates to huge figures in profit.

What are the most common challenges in cabbage production?

Most farmers make the mistake of producing quality crop in huge volumes but do not have the pre requisite market to absorb their produce often resulting in losses. It is advisable to first investigate and gather enough information about your market before cropping to avoid this scenario. Another common challenge is that of poor quality produce, the chief culprit being pests which damage the leaves , it is very important to have a strict spraying program that is adhered to religiously in order to manage and control the pests.

It is very important to emphasize that cabbage production is a volumes game. The more cabbage you produce the more returns you make. Established farmers will tell you that for example you may produce a truck load of cabbages e.g in lay man’s terms a T35 truck but only realize a profit of 300 USD after deductions of transport etc but if you send a load of a Nissan UD truck you realize a profit of roughly 1 000 USD.

In the next article we will go deep into the production technicalities of cabbage so be sure to visit this page.

Emmanuel DN Dube is the senior agronomist at Agro Aid Trust, if you have any questions please email him on agroaidtrustzimbabwe@gmail.com +263783 495 396

by Shikoh Gitau

A story is told of a technology company that creates and deploys life-saving mobile phone services. Based in Cape Town, this technology company developed a revolutionary technology with a mission to assist community health workers from the local township to better monitor their HIV-positive patients. The mobile application fulfilled all the usability requirements; it was easy to use, adoptable to local language, and solved a vey specific use. On launching the services, it was a flop. Further studies indicated that, while all the technical and social requirements were met, and community health workers were excited at the prospect of using it, they were not using it. The question there was: What had gone wrong?

Before I explain, I will share another anecdote. Recently I was engaged in a heated discussion on the role of technology for development. The mostly older, Western-educated male audience, while largely reluctant to adopt technology in some areas, was open to the idea that technology could make a difference, which came as a pleasant surprise to me. However, that is as far as the pleasantries reached, because the next statement was, “Women, Technology, Rural and Africa… what do you mean? That is an oxymoron! We should just forget that and invest on the urban youth, those are the catalyst to development, and they are the future.” This statement sent a chill down my spine. Is it really an oxymoron?

One thing is clear, African women remain largely unaccounted for in the technology sector. The gap in all spheres – leadership, labour force and usage – is wider than the world average. What is causing this digital gender gap? Is it lack of the correct technology? Is it lack of relevant content online, or is it due to the long-held myth that girls are just not good enough to pursue science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called “STEM careers”; nor to use technology, much less in the technological field? But the even bigger question is: Can anything be done to reverse this trend?

In January, the African Development Bank, hosted an invigorating roundtable with the theme “Women and Technology: Increasing Access, Use, Employment and Leadership” in the Bank’s South African Resource Centre (SARC). The roundtable brought together the visiting delegation of TechWomen, with some of the leading voices for women and technology in South Africa. TechWomen is a US State Department-funded program, whose goal is to increase the number of women technology entrepreneurs in the global south through training and mentorship. The delegation was made up of senior women in leadership in the Silicon Valley.

The objective of the roundtable was to discuss ways in which the represented companies, organizations and individuals would approach the issue to increase the holistic participation of women in technology. Everyone at the table was already a converted advocate and activist on the issue. However, the questions raised included: What are the similarities in challenges across the Atlantic? What lessons can be learned from each of the experiences? And what are the possible areas of collaboration and partnership?

The issue of cyber security, especially for young girls who were accessing the Internet for the first time, was a cross-cutting theme. The participants, especially those who were mothers, voiced concerns about how to ensure the safety of their children online even on the simplest of phones.

There was also a discussion around education and possible policy, curriculum and structural interventions to attract and retain the number of women who pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) from grade school, through to tertiary institutions. Pointing out examples such as Harvey Mudd College, which has seen an increase of women taking computer science. Additional actions suggested was close collaboration with governments, and special incentives to universities to increase the number of women pursuing STEM.

A major source of discussion was the design of technology and, as one participant pointed out, “it is very hard for an all pale male design team, to have the perspective of a mahogany female” referring the design teams of many of the widely used technology. The context that determines if an African female will be a technology user is complex concoction of culture, socialization, infrastructure and education, to mention just a few. These are issues that may not all be well understood through a survey or usability studies, but rather through a real-life experience and only an African woman could fully express her perspective, and those of women like her. It was therefore pointed out that there is a need for more African women to either be creating the technologies, or to be part of teams creating technology.

Adoption of some of the suggestions that came out of the discussion is a priority for the Bank. These included the creation of special internships and scholarship tracks to catalyze the increase of women in the workforce, working with governments and educational institutions to adopt some of the best practices to ensure that they attract and retain women in the STEM fields of work, and supporting women to innovate and start their own technology businesses. It is important to demonstrate why women and especially rural women should be using technology. For instance, women form over 60% of the Africa rural population, are responsible for approximately 75% of the agricultural labour, and produce 60% to 80% of the food^[1]. Evidence shows that, if they had the same access to productive resources including technology as men, they could increase their yields, raising total agricultural output, in turn reducing the number of hungry people in the world. Finally, there is the case of role models: showcasing some of the women who are already working in the STEM fields on the continent is important to motivate young girls, who otherwise lack someone to look up to.

Going back to the story of community health workers in South Africa and the live-saving application I started with, Lerato, a 32-year-old community health worker who lives in Gugulethu, has to walk to work in Khayelitsha Township, where Siba and her family lives. Siba is one of the 15 families affected by HIV under Lerato’s care. The daily commute through the the sprawling township is not safe. To ensure her safety, Lerato often disguises herself by wearing a cloth on her head and conceals all her valuables in her undergarments. The team that created the community health worker application did not take into account the commute and the safety measures that Lerato has to undertake. Further testing did not uncover why the Lerato was not using the service. But when a new design team took over the project, a woman in the team took only a day to discover the problem. The mobile phone that held the application which was issued to Lerato was too big. It could not easily fit into her bra.

Numerous metal objects and other items were used as currency in Africa. They are as follows: cowrie shells, salt, gold (dust or solid), copper, ingots, iron chains, tips of iron spears, iron knives, cloth in various shapes (square, rolled, etc.). Copper was as valuable as gold in Africa. Copper was not as widespread and more difficult to acquire, except in Central Africa, than gold. Other valuable metals included lead and tin. Salt was also as valuable as gold. Because of its scarcity, it was used as currency.

North Africa

Islamic North Africa made use of the Almoravid dinar and Fatimid dinar, gold coins. The Almoravid dinar and the Fatimid dinar were printed on gold from the Sahelian empires. The ducat of Genoa and Venice and the florine of Florence were also printed on gold from the Sahelian empires.

West Africa and the Sahel

Cowry money

Cowries have been used as currency in West Africa since the 11th century when their use was first recorded near Old Ghana. Its use may have been much older. Sijilmasa in present-day Morocco seems to be a major source of cowries in the trans-Saharan trade. In western Africa, shell money was usual tender up until the middle of the 19th century. Before the abolition of the slave trade there were large shipments of cowry shells to some of the English ports for reshipment to the slave coast. It was also common in West Central Africa as the currency of the Kingdom of Kongo called locally nzimbu.

As the value of the cowry was much greater in West Africa than in the regions from which the supply was obtained, the trade was extremely lucrative. In some cases the gains are said to have been 500%. The use of the cowry currency gradually spread inland in Africa. By about 1850 Heinrich Barth found it fairly widespread in Kano, Kuka, Gando, and even Timbuktu. Barth relates that in Muniyoma, one of the ancient divisions of Bornu, the king’s revenue was estimated at 30,000,000 shells, with every adult male being required to pay annually 1000 shells for himself, 1000 for every pack-ox, and 2000 for every slave in his possession. In the countries on the coast, the shells were fastened together in strings of 40 or 100 each, so that fifty or twenty strings represented a dollar; but in the interior they were laboriously counted one by one, or, if the trader were expert, five by five. The districts mentioned above received their supply of kurdi, as they were called, from the west coast; but the regions to the north of Unyamwezi, where they were in use under the name of simbi, were dependent on Muslim traders from Zanzibar. The shells were used in the remoter parts of Africa until the early 20th century, but gave way to modern currencies. The shell of the land snail, Achatina monetaria, cut into circles with an open center was also used as coin in Benguella, Portuguese West Africa.

Some of the currencies used in the Sahel included paper debt or IOU’s for long distance trade, gold coins, and the mitkal (gold dust) currency. Gold dust that weighed 4.6 grams was equivalent to 500 or 3,000 cowries. Square cloth, four spans on each side, called chigguiya was used around the Senegal River.

In Kanem cloth was the major currency. A cloth currency called dandi was also in widespread use.

Source: Wikipedia

When I wanted to tour Mozambique for the first time last year in March,  I  visited a medical  doctor for a yellow fever injection. I had heard that malaria is a big issue in Mozambique and one needed to take precautions. So the doctor asked me why I wanted to visit Mozambique during Easter Holidays? I confidently replied his question and said I wanted to explore business opportunities in Mozambique. I was curious about this country which rarely gets good coverage . The doctor laughed at me and said ‘There is nothing in Mozambique, there is no industry, the citizens are some of the poorest in the world’ He advised me against going to Mozambique as it was a waste of time and resources.

I did not heed his advice though, as someone who had made up his mind, i proceeded with the trip. I wanted to find out how poor Mozambique is and whether there are any opportunities in the so called  ‘poverty stricken’ country.

Correcting the Misconception on Mozambique

Let me correct the perception of Mozambique as a poor nation, the correct fact is that Mozambique is not poor at all. They have a lot of resources from minerals, marine, tourism potential, service industry and agriculture. It’s a matter of time before the correct policies and all stakeholders work together for the betterment of living standards of Mozambicans.

Who are the people we found in Mozambique?

When we visited the city of Tete in Mozambique we found different types of citizens in the city or cidade. The first group is made up of local Mozambicans, the second group is made up of Zimbabwean nationals, the third group is made up of foreign nationals from countries such as Portugal, Brazil, Philippines and other European and Asian countries. The last group is made up of adventurous South African investors.

So each and every group has its own needs that need to be met. For instance Zimbabweans working in mines need education for their kids and they prefer English Speaking schools. An opportunity for an investor looking to invest in education. The European and Asian communities have different tastes when it comes to food, clothing, entertainment and other needs.

A person advising you on opportunities in Mozambique is likely to miss out some of the opportunities we found when he or she says Mozambique is poor! The question is who are you targeting? The South African investor building shopping malls in Tete will not agree with you, The South African investor targeting tourists by building chalets on the shores of Indian Ocean will strongly disagree with you.

The same scenario applies to Zimbabwe, someone targeting tobacco farmers will tell you a different story when it comes to investment-a profitable venture! Someone targeting the NGO sector with goods and services may not agree with you when you say there are few opportunities in Zimbabwe. Someone who supplied fertiliser for the Command Agriculture programme will not share the same view of Zimbabwe as a place of few opportunities. ZBIN members on the Mining Forum will not agree with you when you say there are no opportunities in the gold mining sector. Someone with a business that benefits from Diaspora remittances will vehemently deny that business is low in Zimbabwe.

So food for thought to you all, it is good to have a general view or macro view of a country but is advisable to dig deeper and find out opportunities on the ground. It is important to establish who are the people involved in business, who are the people buying goods and services and then tailor make your strategy accordingly.

* Did you see our manual on starting businesses in Mozambique? You can read or download it from this site.