Last year around this time, few people around the world knew of the novel pandemic Covid-19. Only China was doing its best tying to manage the pandemic that broke out in the Wuhan Province but failed to contain it leading to a viral infection across the globe that has claimed nearly 2 million people with more than 90 million infected.

What will the situation look like in a years time? With an average of 500,000 new infactions on a daily basis worldwide, its anybody’s guess how many millions would be infected. We are obviously looking at more than 500m infected in 2 years time.

The good news is the discovery of several vaccines from the leading pharmaceutical companies but its still early days yet as the impact is still to be felt with infection numbers infact skyrocketing instead of stagnating.

What happens before the vaccines effectively manage the spread of Covid-19?

We have to keep to WHO guidelines of social distancing, masking up and other hyegiene practices!

The biggest question mark of the pandemic is how have millions of people infected been recovering? Why are there no headlines coverage of recoveries? Why is the world speaking in hushed tones when it comes to recoveries?

If we stick to Zimbabwe, we are going to find underground use of local herbs—Zumbani, Mufandichimuka, Garlic, Onions,  Guava leaves and more.

A new value chain has been created of managing Covid-19 infections with local herbs all of a sudden finding immense value.

Some are packaging the freely available Zumbani and Mufandichimukas and selling them at premium prices! Some entrepreneurs quick to the game have found a way to package and sell them in retail shops. For a packet of 100g of Zumbani team, prices started at US$2 rising to US$6 in some selected retail giants.

Mind you no one has a farm of growing these herbs! Noone is incurring planting, fertilising, labour and herbicide costs. Only collecting and transportation costs…dear reader, welcome to the most profitable agricultural opportunity in the country!

Despite just plucking the herbs from forests, demand keeps spiralling upwards with supplies unable to match the excess demand!

Are authorities going to come and wield an axe over Zumbani, Mufandichimuka and related products like what happened with the quail birds? In the middle of the pandemic—looks highly unlikely unless there is an accident of herbs use that kills many people.

So till vaccines effectively deal with the pandemic  which is going to take several years, then advantage to local herbs!

Our forum members have also been monitoring developments and have created a group which will lead to the formation of a Zumbani Crowdfunding Company.

We wish them the best in helping solve the pandemic and also unlocking opportunities for themselves.

We have always been challenging Zimbabweans to unite! To unite in every facet of life- be it politics, religion or business. Unity does not mean the absence of diversity but our country suffers from the DNA of individualism and as a result a lot of opportunities do fly away.

Perhaps we have been burnt for far too long–relatives, friends, workmates, neighbours and even pastors. It is difficult to trust anyone in Zimbabwe or even Zimbabweans on foreign soil. Expecting them to come together and support a common cause is almost impossible.

The late Prof Masipula Sithole perhaps summarised it well when he said ‘If you take 2 Zimbos to the moon, the following morning; they would have formed 3 political parties’

The journey to unite Zimbabweans in business has not been any easy, to be honest, we have invested a lot, been patient and slowly there is a glimpse of hope. It is just 1% as there is still need for more time till we get Zimbabweans to work and trust each other in business.

The good news is across Limpopo, the team there has done an excellent job. They formed an investment company and registered it in May 2020. It is by Zimbabweans with BIG AMBITIONS and they named it Big Ideas Galore.

Formed in May, the company acquired land in September 2020. For people who did not know each other on January 1 to meet in January and February and map the way forward in crowdfunding activities, this should be a national record!

Bringing 25 shareholders together from all over South Africa is a Herculean Task. We have in the past struggled to get 3 people to our meetings! Yes you may see hundreds of entrepreneurs at our events but it certainly was not easy to mobilise them! Getting them to pool resources inorder to conduct business is akin to moving mountains but slowly we are getting there.

BIG did it in style-they held their first AGM on the land they acquired [OWN LAND]. The first project they will be undertaking is a poultry project and venturing into other areas in future.

With an estimated 3m or more Zimbabweans in the diaspora and with diaspora remittances close to a billion dollars yearly, the diaspora economy is bigger than some GDPs of smaller cities in Zimbabwe.

We wish the team well for sowing the seeds, the target is by end of 2030, to have the first Zimbabwean Diaspora Company listed on the JSE and Yes Its Possible.

We congratulate Zbinites in South Africa and challenge the rest of the forumites across the globe to follow the steps.

For inquiries on joining the initiative, do get in touch with Chairman Blessing on +27 65 046 0436