Diaspora Matters

HJR Retail Group B.V., a Netherlands-based company, is offering businesspeople and entrepreneurs across Africa the opportunity to become exclusive agents and distributors for its range of cleaning equipment and products.

The company specialises in the sale of new and used cleaning equipment and detergents for hotels, restaurants, factories, public transport, public buildings, retail stores and shopping centres, among others. One important focus are special custom-made cleaning solutions for trains, buses, hotels and airports.

The cleaning equipment industry is seeing rapid growth in many African countries, supported by the development of office, retail and hospitality properties.

HJR Retail Group supplies world-class brands such as Eurosteam, Stolzenberg, Taski, Hako, Tennant, Cleanfix, Fimap and Ghibli, to name a few. All new products come with a minimum one-year warranty.

Having already established a presence in East Africa, HJR Retail is now looking to further grow its business across the continent. Agents and distributors will receive support in terms of product training and marketing materials.

The company’s warehouse in the Netherlands is in close proximity to some of Europe’s largest seaports, allowing for fast shipment to Africa.

Our position on the Diaspora is very clear-we are a Diaspora friendly forum and whenever we design programmes or trainings, we will be having the Diaspora in mind. Take for instance our Tenders Tracker, a Diasporan is not likely to have access to tenders information, what is new, what are the trends etc. ZBIN ensures that our members have up to date information on tenders by compiling this information and posting it on our site or distributing it to subscribed members through our online newsletter. Our board is made up of 50% Diasporans and this ensures that there is sufficient representation of the Diaspora Voice is all the work that we do.

ZBIN and Youths

We also realise that most of our members are young people. Some are still at college, some recently finished college or some graduated but have no formal employment. Some are already in business or intending to start business. So what is the policy of ZBIN in relation to youths?

Our policy is that of assisting youths in everything that we do and to date we have covered various youths programmes such as:

1. Youth Fund Opportunities by Potraz
2. Interview with Roselyn Marere on Business Opportunities in India
3. Employment Tracker to assist youths seeking employment
4. Promotion of a Poultry App by a forum youngster
5. The ZBIN Logo was designed by a young forum member called Tafadzwa
6. The ZBIN website was redesigned by a young member with a company called SBT
7. Our forum ZBIN Online Forex Trading targets young members
8. We have been invited by a local university to carry out a business presentation targetting university students
9. Featured the Bus Stop Start Up Interview to inspire youths
10. ZBIN’s Tender Tracker is carried out by a young member of the forum
11. We have actively promoted start ups from young members of the forum

So our forum caters the youth because the youth are particularly vulnerable to unemployment as a result of a combination of factors related to their lack of skills, lack of work experience, lack of collateral and limited access to business support services tailored towards their needs.

We will therefore be actively promoting the participation of youths in business especially in areas of provision of information and capacity building, promotion of initiatives targeting youths and covering businesses that do not require a lot of capital-startups.

Our best initiative targeting youths is the Online Forex Trading Initiative where we have provided various free trainings to our members so that they can have an appreciation of this initiative that has great potential to provide income to young forum members. The area of online forex trading has however been dogged by fraudsters who hoodwink the public into investing in them and thereafter disappearing with funds. Our policy at ZBIN is that members trade on their own, we give free information, provide training and enable members to network with seasoned traders. This helps in inspiring young members learn the ropes in a conducive environment where everything happens above board.

So to young members in business , the message is that ZBIN has got you covered and whenever we come out with initiatives, one of the key questions is ‘How about the Youths?’

Have you seen folks who just say ‘iri business iri rine mari’ and then plunge in and invest? There are no sufficient studies to find out the profitability of the investment, the impact of the economy on the business, the regulatory environment, the impact of smuggling on the business, the impact of elections on the business-i cango on and on listing variables that affect a business. The point here is that when planning to invest a substantial amount of money in any business venture, you are going to do thorough studies or risk sinking money into loss making ventures.

The ‘business iri rine mari’ (this business is profitable) concept has led to the high rate of business failures and also the flooding of any emerging business opportunities. Take for instance the purchasing of a kombi-most just transfer funds to Beforward, receive your vehicle, get all the necessary permits, hire a driver and conductor and within a few weeks the kombi is on the road! There is no study to determine the current trends in the industry, current or future plans by the government, how many kombis already exist and future outlook. For most investors in the sector-its get sufficient funds to import a kombi and hire employees-end of story and this usually results in investors making losses because they may not have full knowledge of the business.

We often give the example of the quail bird projects which once took Zimbabwe by storm in 2016. Some took bank loans and invested heavily in the projects. A few months after investment then came the shock news of the project ban! Those who had invested in the project had obviously not done enough studies because they should have checked the position of regulatory authorities on the project.

Inorder to assist our members to invest wisely, we are giving you a free business template for download. Carefully study the contents especially on marketing, distribution, competition, future products, technology, products, finanial information etc. This should give you general guidance on what a business plan is. Subscribed members of the forum can downoad a business plan checklist from our Facebook page.

The major advantage of being a member or follower of ZBIN is being able to benefit from free business ideas, resources and information. If you are a subscribed member you have added advantages of being the first to benefit from information before we cascade it to others.

To date we have helped subscribed members with business opportunities in the local tourism sector, energy sector, consultancy sector , food sector and transport sectors. We have seen a number of our members registering patents and this is good for the community.

Today we cover one business opportunity and it comes free of charge targeting the Diaspora Community. Our opportunity is for the manufacture of vending carts, there are currently no brand name manufacturing companies that are looking at the vending business.

Neat and clean designs can really help to improve business for owners of carts, they also improve in terms of mobility. In Harare we do have mobile cars found along major roads such as Lomagundi and Harare Drive but these old trucks cannot compete for customers with some of the designs you will see below.

So for the Diaspora community those thinking of relocating or investing back home in the nearby future, we urge you to study this sector closely or inquire from ZBIN for a detailed business plan.

The above cart is manufactured in South Africa

• Meanwhile, were you aware of the ZBIN Free Online Forex Trading that is happening tomorrow in Harare?

ZBIN continues to be a forum of choice when it comes to business in Zimbabwe. We have a lot of information and resources to assist our members. Today we share with you information on raising goats as a business. Feel free to download it from our site. The manual was  compiled by the Department of Agricultural Research and Extension, Matopos Research Station Represented by J.L.N. Sikosana & T.S. Senda .

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The Ministry of ICT and Courier Services is inviting ICT Innovators, Start Ups and Entrepreneurs to apply for funding in the form of loans under the ICT Innovation Drive Project.

Inorder to be considered they need the following:

• Detailed brief of the ICT, Innovation
• Business Plan and a Budget
• Any ICT based product, service, business model or process that is new to the market with unique features that is successfully implemented to address a current need in a new or better way

Eligibility

Any ICT Innovator or start ups that have brilliant innovations or solutions that have potential to revolutionise its target market and/ or drastically change the lives of Zimbabweans and the economy as a whole.

Application Process

Send a copy of the descriptive business plan, projections and budget required, clearly indicated ‘Application for Innovation Project Funding’ to innovationdrive@potraz.gov.zw

The deadline for submission is 30 May 2017.

This is the third fund we have featured on the site for our members. Excellent initiative for Young Members of the forum. This is why we have been reminding members to always have business ideas and business plans ready  even when you do not have funding! Do look forward to general guidance of how to sucessfully apply for funding.

One of our greatest strengths as a business  forum is that our members are well informed. They get regular updates on their website, Facebook Page, Twitter, Online Newsletters and soon there will be an App where you can receive business news, videos and audios in real time.

We do our best to cover areas that are usually not normally covered by the mainstream media. Areas such as DRC, Angola, Tanzania, China, Rwanda, Mozambique, Dubai and India. We like India a lot because of the success of their start up businesses. We believe India can inspire Zimbabweans especially our young entrepreneurs and to date we have covered 2 Indian .features on our site. We also have a couple of Indian nationals on our forums with Mahesh being the most popular one on our WhatsApp platforms.

 Most of our features are on Zimbabwe as we try and help our Diasporan Brothers and Sisters and Foreign nationals to be clued up of developments in Zimbabwe. We do not like you to be  left out of business developments or investment opportunities in the wonderful country called Zimbabwe!

Today we however twist the tables  and feature the Diaspora. We have already done features on the Diaspora covering Dubai, Angola, DRC, Canada, Namibia and today we cover  India where our Official ZBIN contact provides an  insight into developments in India. In addition to modelling, she is a business woman in her own right. Below is an interview we carried out with her-tihwe zvizere kubva kumwana wevhu wemutupo wekwa Mbano.

Tell us about yourself

Hello, I’m Nyasha Roselyn Marere born and bred in Harare and I come from Buhera . Growing up I stayed in Budiriro and when turned 5 s we moved to Highfield New Canaan in Harare. I grew up staying in the ghetto and I attended Mhofu Primary school. In 2006 we moved to Mount Hampden better known as Goodhope.

I attended Chindunduma High 1 School then transferred to ZRP High School then to rounded up A level at  Elephant college. After  school I travelled to South Africa Port Elizabeth where I worked as a cashier in a restaurant called Fishaways before relocating  to India. I came for studies (BA Vocational Traveling and Tourism 2012-2015). I have to admit India is not like America lol there are some nice places yes but it’s overpopulated. A billion plus people so anyone can relate with the living standards. Unlike back home most houses are flats therefore few  playgrounds for the kids and most of the flats can get up to 15 floors each.

Tell us about the weather in India

India is one of the hottest countries on earth and temperatures  can get up to 50 degrees and trust me for someone who grew up in Zimbabwe you are bound to get sick the first summer. However there’s winter too between November and March and yes it is cold I remember my first year got up to ~4 degrees and that was new for me haha. Some places do snow but just a few. On the other hand India is beautiful it has a lot of tourist attractions and I have not finished visiting them.

How about Indian Food?

There’s wide variety of dishes in India , it is popular because of the spice but there’s also non spicy food and it’s delicious. I bet no one even the Indians have not tasted all their dishes. I do like Indian food but not every day, I usually eat it according to craves .

Business Opportunities in India

There are a lot of business opportunities in India mostly in the medical field. Medicine is way cheap in India judging with my experience one cannot be ill for more than 3 days because a lot of hospitals and pharmacies are all over in India. Unless one is coming for serious ailments like kidney disease or heart,  the rest of the medicine costs very less. One can also indulge in hair business because India is where it all happens with the way ladies want to be on fleek wearing Indian, Brazilian and Peruvian hair this is the best place to get it and at a more affordable price. Indians rarely employ foreigners because they are still accommodating their people first and they are a lot.

 What you enjoy most about India

What I love about India in the business world is there are a lot of SMEs. Anything is turned into business here there are a lot of small shops everywhere, whether selling groceries or maybe cigarettes- they always have something on the side generating cash for them no matter the size of profits. Unlike in Zimbabwe one will be wondering why they should put a table by the roadside and start a side business. Here there is a lot of informal business going on with a lot of people invoved in it.

Cost of Living in India

The costs of living in India depends with a persons’ taste. If you want to live at  crowded places then obviously the costs will be low but if you are looking for a quieter and a little bit fancy place then the costs will also be high.

How did you end up in the modelling industry?

I started modelling in 2013 after the death of my father because I was going through a hard time and needed to move on which we all know that’s impossible. However despite my dreams of wanting to be a pilot/ governor/ air hostess I told myself I want to partake on something I never imagined or that I think I cannot do and boom I decided to be a model. It wasn’t easy I must admit with the fake agencies etc I had to be strong but somehow I made it. I was juggling both studies and modelling and am proud of my achievements to date.

Benefits derived from Modelling

 Modelling has helped me believe in myself, gain confidence and make very important connections because in India  one definately needs a  few connections to survive.

Do you have any business ventures back home

I do buying and selling sometimes of hair for mostly my friends but I believe very soon I will start something related to modelling.

Zimbo Community in India

Honestly I’m not really sure about the Zimbabwean community in India. In New Delhi there are a few i have come across  but i hear that there could be plenty in places like Hyderabad and Bangalore. I would have talked about religion and culture but that’s a topic for another day haha. I encourage Zimbabweans who mostly want to send their kids for school to send them here as the education system in India is good. For those who want to visit they are also welcome there are a lot of tourist attractions in India and you cannot finish them all.

Ko Mutupo?

Mambano

Any other business you are involved in apart from modelling?

I have started new work as a fitness trainer. You know how much people are fighting diseases that come with overweight so I do train clients and this includes  making  diet plans. I’m also a model advisor working with young women interested in the industry.

Your Contact Details

I’m glad to be a part of this interview and to those who wish to connect with me on social network here are my usernames Facebook: Roselyn Marere ,Twitter: Roselyn Marere , Instagram: roselyn_marere , snapchat: rosiemre

Are you a Diasporan and would like to be featured on ZBIN? If your answer is yes then contact us on +263774081808, strictly whatsapp and no calls-thank you.

Schools are expected to open for the second term this week and if you were in Harare yesterday then you must have noticed the high number of parents and their children. Most of the parents were paying school fees at banks or involved in last minute groceries for kids going to boarding schools. It was a hive of activity in the city centre with a number of books shops or shops selling school uniforms enjoying brisk business.

Related to the issue is a big question for the forum and the question is ‘What are the top 6 areas where Zimbabweans are spending their money on?’ We carried out an unofficial mini survey within the ZBIN Community and came up with the top 6 which are below:

1. Food
2. Education
3. Accomodation
4. Medical costs
5. Transport
6. Entertainment -Dstv subscriptions

Are you interested in investment especially in the short to medium term? If your answer is Yes, then you may need to criticlly look at the 6 areas we listed above. The above 6 areas are not cast in stone as priorities are always changing and depend on the economy class that is concerned. However based on what is what is currently on the ground, most people seem to be spending money on the areas we mentioned.

Implications for investors

It is not suprising that recent financial statements from retailers such as OK Stores show marked improvements in profits when compared to last year. The same applies to a lot of retailers, large and small scale. You can compare and contrast with other sectors such as the Telecommunication sector where profits are slightly going down when compared to the previous year. So there is more spending on basics with little being left for luxury goods, real estate developments and other capital projects.

So if your planning horizon is short to medium term, then closely study the 6 areas and expand the list, removing or adding areas. As witnessed yesterday, Education is a top priority for most people and spending on education includes school or college fees, school uniforms, stationery, food and school tours.

On accomodation we have spending to a large extent rentals and rates, construction of homes seems to have been affected by the current liquidity challenges. Medical costs remain high especially for those without medical aid insurance. Transport costs is high for those using own cars and costs include daily running expenses such as fuel, service costs and insurance. On the 6th place we have Entertainment where Dstv subscriptions top the list. The inclusion of Dtsv subscription is not suprising because according to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the nation spend $206 million on Dstv subscriptions during the six months period of July to December 2016.

Conclusion

This list is a general list and should be taken with caution as we did not carry out a comprehensive survey. The intention of the post is to help members with investment decision making, to help our diasporan community to appreciate what is prevailing on the ground so that this can inform their decision making. Remember that for investment making decision, you do not just plunge head on based on general information-you need detailed business plans which shows the potential of an industry, the level of competition, analysis of suppliers, regulatory environment, market review, sensitivity to economic variables, risk and opportunities.

Your favourite one stop business forum keeps giving you essential business information for decision making. We encourage members to look beyond traditional markets when looking for opportunities. This is one of the reasons why we have adopted Mozambique as one of our favourite countries. We chose Mozambique because little is known about the Portuguese Speaking country by Zimbabweans. Mention Mozambique and what quickly comes to mind are only negatives-from poverty, wars and suffering but take your time to analyse opportunities and you will be amazed to find that they exist in abundance. We even have some of our members who are carrying out mining and farming activities in the resource rich country to the East of Zimbabwe. We have toured the country on 3 occassions and the next trip is scheduled for June 2017 and we hope to travel to Beira.

Still on Mozambique, we have also covered Angola in the past and there are 2 articles on this site. The first one, an interview of a sister based in Angola who told us that a plate of sadza costs a minimum of $10 in Luanda, she also updated us with a lot of information on opportunities that exist in the country. She is currently back in Zimbabwe and hopes to go back after Angola’s general election. In the meantime, we have decided to share with you information about Angola that we obtained from the site www.export.gov.

Overview Agriculture accounts for 12 percent of Angola’s $102 billion GDP in 2015 and provides employment, both formal and informal, for more than two-thirds of Angolans, mostly at subsistence levels. Prior to the 1975-2002 civil war, Angola was a major exporter of coffee, sisal, sugar cane, banana and cotton, and self-sufficient in all food crops except wheat. The civil war disrupted agricultural production and displaced millions of people. Angola currently imports more than half of its food, with some estimates putting the figure as high as 90 percent. Angola is United States’ fifth largest market for poultry products in the world, and the third largest market in Africa for all agricultural exports.

Angola has the natural resources to be one of the leading agricultural countries in Africa, as its diverse and fertile ecology is suited for a variety of crops and livestock. However, the country currently only cultivates approximately 10 percent of its 35 million hectares of arable land. An estimated 90 percent of farms in Angola are small to medium in size and are used mainly for communal, subsistence farming. The agricultural commodities produced include cassava, bananas, potatoes, maize, sweet potatoes, citrus and pineapples.

The World Bank is currently developing a comprehensive agricultural sector development program for Angola anticipated to be in place by early 2017 that would greatly expand their role beyond their previous smallholder agriculture land rehabilitation and irrigation projects. Also, through an invitation from the Ministry of Agriculture the University of Texas A&M’s Borlaug Institute conducted an agricultural assessment in late 2015/early 2016 to access and provide recommendations for advancing Angola’s capacities in the areas of poultry, livestock, coffee, grain crops, and value chain development.

While chicken and pinto beans remain major US agriculture exports to Angola, these sales are down significantly in 2015 with further declines expected for 2016 due to the limited access to foreign exchange and increased food prices due to the increased costs of imported food and agricultural inputs resulting from local currency devaluation.

Processed Products (consumer-oriented food products)

In Angola, food is sold both through modern retail and informal channels. Local industry sources estimate that the informal market controls approximately 80 percent of agricultural produce retail sales volumes. Informal retail includes both small grocers as well as open air markets (locally called “Cantinas”). Since the civil war ended in 2002, importance of the informal market has declined especially in urban centers such as Luanda where formal retail is developing rapidly. The government is trying to formalize retail by establishing specific areas for open markets. In Luanda, municipal authorities are forcefully eradicating street venders with laws that impose fines for both vendors and buyers. Public health concerns are the main reason provided for the closures of informal open markets, as goods are often sold in poor condition, food is kept on the ground, without refrigeration and exposed to the sun, and expired goods are sometimes offered for sale.

As many other things in the country, shopping itself is not without challenges. Only a small percentage of Angola’s population owns a car, thus most people are dependent on overcrowded public mini-buses to reach hypermarkets and supermarkets. Consequently, the majority of the population prefers to shop close to home in open air markets or small grocers, which are perceived as offering fresher, less expensive food than hypermarkets and supermarkets. Even with convenient supermarkets opening in the past few years in the outer areas of Luanda, many Angolans feel more comfortable in informal markets. For this reason, local formal retailers have come up with various strategies to attract the informal market customer. Nosso Super, for example, opened its shops at locations near traditional market places. Hypermarket Kero, in turn, tries to make lower and middle income customers feel comfortable in its shops by playing loud Angolan music.

Changes in the consumer profile and demographics, increasing urbanization, improvements in infrastructure, and an increase in the number of international brands available in the Angolan market are driving rapid developments of the retailing landscape. Consumers across income levels are becoming more sophisticated and demanding in terms of variety and quality. In the past, Angolans were satisfied with small grocers selling dry goods, but now retailers are expected to offer frozen goods as well. Historically, Portuguese, Lebanese and Indians have been the dominant players in the Angolan grocery retail market; however, due to the economic downturn and scarcity of foreign exchange many of these third country traders are leaving Angola. South African supermarket chain Shoprite is expanding in Angola and new players are entering the formal retail space most recently hypermarket Candando owned by Angolan Isabelle Santos. Some supermarkets target wealthier Angolans and expatriates such as Casa dos Frescos that offers the greatest choice of fresh produce and higher quality standards.

Poultry Poultry is the most widely-consumed as well as the most affordable protein in Angola. Angola produces 36,000 tons of broiler meat per year, only 8 percent of total market demand of approximately 450,000 tons per year. Growers include subsistence farmers, smallholder producers supported by government and non-governmental projects, and commercial operations.

In 2015, Angola was the fifth largest market for US poultry and poultry product shipments by volume, and the fifth largest broiler meat market by volume. While significant, U.S. poultry exports to Angola declined by 40 percent since 2014 due to a lack of foreign currency availability for payments to international suppliers. Despite this current challenge, Angola remains a strong market opportunity for US frozen chicken leg quarters.

Wheat grain

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Angola produced about 25,000 tons of wheat grain per year, mainly in the southern Huambo province. The civil war halted wheat production and destroyed flour milling capacity. As a result, wheat flour is predominately imported at a level of 519,000 tons in 2014.

With government encouragement and support, the private sector is trying to reestablish a wheat milling industry in Angola and through the Ministry of Industry is even partnering in a new flour milling operation at the Port of Luanda. The Port of Luanda has the capacity to store 40,000 tons in silos and the government is promoting an increase in storage infrastructures.

Several private companies pursuing wheat processing business in Angola express concern about the large variance in the import duty for wheat grain of 30 percent compared with 2 percent for wheat flour. Additional wheat milling projects underway in Angola include the Grandes Moagens de Angola project that will have the capacity to process 1,200 tons of wheat per day, Kwaba with the capacity to process 200 tons of wheat per day, and Cerangola with a 120 ton capacity.

We constantly get inquiries from our members about investment opportunities. Most inquiries involve members saying I have x amount to invest and asking for advice. All investment inquiries start with I have this amount of money and therefore asking us to help with investment options. In this article, ZBIN will try to help members to broaden their thinking when it comes to investment. You may not need to always start with capital monies when thinking of investment. You may need to consider capital last and we will explain how this works. We will explore 2 investment schools of thoughts with the old school of investment being the most prevalent one within our community and beyond.

The Old School: The old school to investment is coming up capital and then deciding what to invest in -you should are guided by  the amount of capital available. If say you have $2.000, then your thinking should be restricted to $2,000 and below.

The advantages of this  approach is that it is straight forward. You do not waste time thinking of proposals out of your range.

New School thinking

The old school to investment limits your scope to what is only available-you do not think beyond what is currently available in your coffers. Those who use the old school thinking usually come up with few investment opportunities when compared to someone who is looking at broad investment opportunities.

The new school approach starts with what do you enjoy doing? What are you good at? It is important to enjoy an activity because you need strong will to stay in business when the going gets tough. When the going gets tough as it usually does, then the driving force is going to be the fact that you enjoy doing something. Even when no one pays you, you will still keep pushing.

So in the new school of investment, you start with what do you enjoy doing? What are you good at and then move on to the next stage:

Opportunities available in the environment

You brainstorm on available opportunities in your environment. What are the gaps, what are the problems that need to be addressed? What are people complaining about? What canbe found in other territories and not where you are based? What are regional trends? You just list opportunities without fear of capital constraints.

Costing the Opportunities

After coming up with an expanded list of opportunities the next stage is assessing which opportunities you would like to pursue, whether they are viable and how much you may need in capital money.

Capital Options

Having put financial figures to a shortlist of investment options, the next step is to determine the source of funding for your selected project. Are you going to fund it 100%, are you going to part fund it? Where will the funding come from? What is the environment like? Some of the options can be as listed below:

1. Bank loan access
2. Homelink cross border/SME credit facility
3. Partnerships
4. Crowdfunding

Accessing bank loans is a big challenge as they require collateral back up and most youths do not have the collateral and yet this is the group with the most business ideas. So what are some of the options to consider when you have no collateral? Crowdfunding and Partnerships models are the in thing especially in an economy like ours. If you hav a great idea and have prepared a business plan then approach institutions such as ZBIN for help, we are always willing to assist and for our members its a free service.

In summary

Do not limit your thinking when it comes to investment and instead of coming up wit capital and asking what you can do with it-we encourage you to think in other terms-consider capital last!