Diaspora Matters

This post originally appeared on Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Network Facebook Page in March

How is your Easter great people? Aaah I’m back…mufaro here uyu? Kunyemwerera here uku?Dream fulfilled–wanted to visit Tete, find out more business information about Tete. Wanted to have fun and discover new interesting stuff and yes I did, yes loads of fun I did enjoy

Purpose of the Trip:
The Purpose was simple, to tour Tete and find out whether there are investment or job opportunities for members of this group of ZBIN group.

Perception of Tete
Just like most Hararians, I ad very little information of Tete. Everything was based on hearsay and to some extent information obtained from the internet. So we can safely conclude that we knew nothing about Tete. In my  mind, Tete was a growth point!! A growth point with little development or uncontrolled development. An outpost of poverty!!

The Journey

We left Harare around 8:00am and arrived at Nyamapanda Border post around 10. At the border posts there were only 2 cars headed for Mozambique!! Get your facts right…Only 2 cars?? Ndikati hameno ikoko isu tirikuenda chete.

Excellent Moz Road
What a shocker—The road that you connect with right from the border is unbelievable. You can be mistaken for thinking that you have entered South Africa!!! But I tel u that the road is far much better than the Beitbridge-Musina road. Wot a sweet road…hahahaha. Uyo tikati hande nayo,Welcome to Mozaambique.

Changara

After travelling for 50-60 kms we entered Changara. A small urban centre –ndipo patakatanga kuwona toll gate but raisashanda.

Poverty -1
You will see from the fotos to be posted, dzimba dzemahuswa dzinorakidza kuti vazhinji vari mupoverty.( This statement may be debatable) . A lot of homesteads we saw on our way to Tete do point to extreme poverty. Pole and Dagga homes are littered along the road.

Cidade de Tete.

After reaching Changara you turn left—The road becomes busy, traffic activity increases by 800%….Signs of Economic Activity. You will meet a lot of gonyets travelling from Chimoio to Tete..Uyo takabva tati hande nayo road iyi tinowona kwainogumira.

Travelling at a safe speed of 100km/hr or so we were surprised to reach Tete in 1 and a half hours—Awesome!! We had planned to spend an extra 4 hours or so on the road!! Ko taive ne knowledge here? Our information was based on youtube and online map zve kkk

Mozambique Policemen.

I was afraid of speed traps and police road blocks. So during the trip I drove cautiously  given that this was my first trip ever to Moz. How many Police Road Blocks? Just 1….Yes just 1 road block!! Hatina kana kutombomiswa…takangopfuurira kuenda. Haa apa takawomberawo mawoko!

City Centre
Kuma 11 uyo tasvika…the first change you witness ma high temperatures—we experienced 33 degrees from Harares 26 and realised that masamba asiyana. Then the motorbikes—but everything else looked normal. Tichisvika tikabva tati handei kunopfuurira the Mighty Zambezi Bridge.
We decided to buy food and cellphone lines as well.

Language Barrier

Apawo vandinavo hapana ane Portuguese language knowledge. The little Portguese we know ma Chips and drinks…Easy stuff, food ichiuya. Then i asked about directions about the nearest hotel. Apo ka apo…apa arikutaura ne fast Portuguese…haa communication yaramba. But arikungoti Mbofana Hotel..Mbofana hotel. Then ndokubva pasvikawo kamwe kasikana ako kakati in English ayewa kuti musvike Mbofana munoofamba so, turn left etc.

Zambezi River Banks

Instead of Mbofana hotel we decided to turn back nedirection yatabva uyooo tananga pazasi pe Zambezi river. Parkei mota pane machinda ema motor bikes. Decided to cool off pamahombekombe e Zambezi River ….Aaah tikati heey we know this river from somewhere.

Part 2
To be continued as we explore Cidade De Tete and find out whether its a growth point and an outpost of poverty.

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*Raw post taken straight from Facebook,never mind the language and grammar, just enjoy

Greetings from Beatrice : So yesterday I found myself 70 kilos from Harare…Munemo was in Beatrice.

Purpose of my journey was simple–wanted to tour a Poultry project being carried out by one of my friends. Aaaaah fabulous stuff…My friend started the project in March 2014. He borrowed $20k as initial capital to fund the project.

He used the capital to buy 1000 layers at $12 each. (Pretty expensive, $12,000 on birds alone?)The remainder of the capital was used to construct a Poultry Run that accommodates 1000 layers, also sunk a borehole n purchased poultry feed n vaccines.

Payback Period
In 2014 eggs were being sold at $4.5 per crate & my friend managed to sell all eggs resulting in him raising and returning back the capital of $19,000 in 7 months!!!

Fast forward to 2016
At first he bought point of lay chickens @ $12 per bird..very expensive arrangement. Not a sustainable arrangement. This sort of capital is definitely not easy to access…he decided to raise own chicks to cut on costs. The experiment worked, only 7 chicks died from a batch of 2040 ( 40 ma extras given by the seller)

So what did I witness yesterday? Dear forumites, I witnessed a successful project where my friend has 2000 birds producing 60 crates per day. The selling price is not good at all…now pegged @ $3,3.(Profit per bird?Eeeh did not carry out a detailed cost analysis…promise to do next time). However its important for you to know tht a layer that has reached a point of lay stage is expected to continue laying for a period of 18 months. An egg per day…

He is currently phasing out the first batch of 1000 layers.

Management
He does not need to actively manage the project…he rarely goes to the project. Infact he only goes when there is a red flag…the red flag of chickens producing eggs less than 60 crates per day. If its consistent for a number of days then he has to investigate 3 issues namely:
1.Are eggs being stolen?
2.Disease outbreak?
3.Faulty feed?

The few times he has had to investigate were prompted by faulty feed.

So once set up the project does not require a lot of management time. He visits the project once every 2 months. He however ensures that he gets daily updates of production matters such as how many crates produced-feed used etc

Labour costs
He has 3 full time employees..2 part time guards.

Water
For this type of project one needs plenty of water. My friend did sunk a borehole(kwete tsime lol)…from the photos  you can see the water tanks and pipés.

Market
Initially he used to sell his eggs to schools-churches-tuckshops and neighbours. He realised that this was not an efficient way of selling eggs with chasing up debtors going to be costly.

Mbare the Egg Market Hub
He started selling his eggs at Mbare and has never looked back!!! He delivers his eggs at Mbare on a weekly basis getting paid for his sales the following day after delivery. Current egg prices range from $3-$3,3. Mbare is now the marketing hub of eggs even the big 3 Poultry Companies now offload thousands of crates on a weekly basis at Mbare. Mbare is now the nerve centre of Eggs in Zim…eggs are transported from Mbare to areas as far as Victoria falls or Nyanga!!

His current plans
Phase out the initial offlayers(1000 birds) n replace them with road runners. Also continue with the new batch of 2000 birds.

Coming next on your forum:

A detailed Post Originally posted on Zim Business Ideas and Network Facebook page in February 2016.

*Post originally posted on Zimbabwe Business Ideas and Networking (ZBIN ) Facebook page in March 2016

Good Afternoon investors how are you doing? Kunevaenda kumakereke mafamba zvakanaka here? Hayewa tichizorora hedu musi we Sunday kudai planning for the week ahead tinokushuvirai makomborero oga oga.

Ok dear friends, lets look at our shopping malls in Zim…Last time we reviewed shopping malls I think we touched on Longchen. Today we will take a close look at the Old Mutual owned shopping mall-Highglen.

Location.
Located near Budiriro the area is easily accessible to folks residing in Highfields,Glen Norah, Glenview,Budiriro, Mufakose,Kambuzuma and Rugare. Good catchment area with a population exceeding 200,000.

Parking Space.
The area has excellent spacious parking space. Some of the space has been turned into a bus terminus for long distance buses.

Vacant Shopping Offices.
The occupancy rate at this mall should be less than 30%. There are many reasons why the situation is like this. We may need a lot of research on the Whys. Our focus is not on the Whys but we choose to be positive and find our HOW members of this forum can benefit.

Possible Opportunities.
Interested in investing at this shopping area? Not sure of the fields to invest in? One quick guide for you is to visit a couple of shopping malls in Harare…compare and contrast with HighGlen.

Areas worth looking at include thee following:
1. Good Pub/Club.
2. Kids Entertainment.
3. Butcheries.
4. Food Courts.
5. Internet Cafes.

After investing you will need to be patient and one area you need to work on is Marketing…if you can market your business well hapana chinoramba.

A few years ago a friend of mine opened a butchery and a bottlestore…ndokubva azoisa ka braai stand. The braai stand became one of the most popular in Harare because it allowed folks to braai,have beer and socialise.

Pa braai stand apa unlike Mereki or Zindoga it was a do- it- yourself service and YES there are a lot of folks who like to braai on their own. The concept became extremely successful such that we ended up with folks driving from the City centre,Northn Surburbs too coming to the area. Truck drivers plying the Joburg Lusaka route started joining folks doing braai…vakatangawo kumira and enjoying the socialising part.

Waiti watenga nyama yako ..mumwewo atenga..wogocha at your own pace,enjoying debates dze soccer,politics,business everyone-Awesome stuff.

Then one day a certain manager wechichena from Old Mutual came…achiwona mhomho yevanhu ndokubva ati braai stand ngaibviswe! Yakabva yabviswa mafaro achiperawo…End of an Era!

Back to our Topic.
So I encourage you all to visit HighGlen shopping centre if you ever get time. Find out how you can invest at the area even usina hako shungu or short term plans to do so.

Online Shopping Malls.
This is for IT guys on the forum….how about creating a HighGlen..Sam Levy..Join City Shopping Mall? Consolidating all the Shopping Malls in Zim on one website. After the creation of the website you can then engage business owners at the respective shopping malls to advertise…initially for free and then at a fee?

Such a website will help consumers to know the location of various businesses at various shopping malls. For now ukandivhunza about businesses at LongChen iam likely to say the LongChen Hardware & IVATO Supermarket. Tumwe tumabusiness twuripo ndetwekungowonawo. Therefore ndikakwanisa kuenda ku LongChen Shopping Mall on the net ndoziva what else I can find at each shopping mall zvingabatsire chose.

Food for Though.

Enjoy your Sunday Good Folks![soliloquy id=”75″]

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