She is the winner of the Econet Entrepreneur Challenge that saw millions from across the continent participating in the challenge with only 2 winners emerging. Her name is Blessing Machiya Shumbakadzi.

Our team met her some time back when we participated at a business seminar at a local church based in Chitungwiza. We were struck by her professionalism and presentation on branding and marketing. This was before the Econet Challenge and little did we know she was on her way to winning one of the greatest prize monies for entrepreneurs on the continent.

So how do you benefit from agriculture? According to the value chain, some provide inputs such as fertilisers, seeds and others. Some are involved in the production side of farming such as tobacco farming and poultry, some are in distribution and marketing such as transporters of farm produce or tobacco merchants, abattoirs and butcheries.

Agriculture is a big tent which fits a lot of people. Even those invisible on the field such as insurance companies also benefit from the sector. One innovative Zimbabwean is making money through the processing and distribution of dried fruits and veges. An innovative concept that caught the eye of Dr Strive Masiyiwa. The Bulawayo based lady agreed on a short interview and answered the following questions.

What is the name of your business?

Business Name: Shumbakadzi Investments Pvt Ltd. Located in Byo ( with plans to expand to major agricultural areas soon)

Current priorities

Our major focus is on finding ways to work with small scale farmers to alleviate post harvest losses by value addition to their produce!

Are you registered?

We are a registered company since November 2017 and registration makes it easy to work with major companies.

Your view on government support for entrepreneurs

Our aim is to open export markets for locally grown produce but our growth is being hampered by lack of capital to expand the business to its fullest capacity. If government was more supportive of companies with export potential foreign currency reserves would start building up in this country.

Advice to young entrepreneurs

Young entrepreneurs should know that starting a legitimate business is not an overnight thing and sometimes you will face major setbacks but the important thing is to have a vision of where you want to take your business and keep working on it until you get there! There comes a time in every business where you now need to grow your brand and you find that you cant do this alone and so its important to set up business networks with people whose services can assist you to grow your business.  

Your views on digital marketing

Digital marketing is now the biggest way to attract customers and is very crucial in the development of your product and growth of customer base. Every entrepreneur needs to be  able to understand the importance of digital marketing and how to drive traffic to your product! Personally I’m still working on my understanding of digital marketing.

We will have a full length interview with her when she comes to Harare at the end of April. So to first time farmers, the agriculture sector is one big tent and look closely at the value chain for opportunities. The dried fruits and vegetables is one huge untapped avenue and helps to assist farmers who are throwing their crops away when they fail to sell them.

With transport costs on the increase, one great opportunity for entrepreneurs is to visit areas such as Mutoko, Honde Valley and Rusape and buying agricultural produce for processing and selling locally and abroad. One key lesson we learnt from Shumbakadzi is branding and access to markets is key in the agro-processing industry.

Anyone can farm and this is an over populated sector-the major challenge is branding and markets and if you can crack the code then you have unlimited business on your hands.

So for some the Augmented Intelligence its still sci-fi stuff probably landing on our shores in a decade or so. But to some us, the interest comes from the amount on billions being invested by major companies in the west. Why invest billions of dollars in non value addition activities?

Non value addition? Think again…there is plenty of value in this technology. The value is in reducing costs, making quick decisions in responding to changes in the environment and thus enhancing profitability. The bottom line is profitability…this is what drives capitalism…maximise, maximise wealth for shareholders.

So its dog eat dog in the corporate sector in the rush to implement cutting edge technologies and robots are coming in handy.

They practically work non stop unlike humans.

They process huge amounts of data quickly.

They are in most cases error free.

Imagine a robot working on a farm….non stop work, accurate..your productivity improves by more than 90%. The robots keep working irrespective of the weather conditions, they don’t go for lunch, they don’t sleep, they don’t complain about bad bosses…literally chikwambo chisina ropa lol

Customer Service and AI: Way back western companies used to employ receptionist who would answer phones, receive clients etc. Someone came up with an idea of transferring that role to call centres dotted across the globe…the model was very cheap…costs cuts, profitability increased! Then someone said hold on, we can get robots to do the work and save on costs. So call centres are on their way out.

Production: For most American manufacturing companies, they realised that China provided cheap labour. Instead of manufacturing products, they transferred their manufacturing plants to the East and this helped in lowering costs and improving profitability. However for geopolitical reasons, China has leapfrogged many developed countries and is poised to be number 1 in a few decades to come. This has ruffled many feathers and there is a reversal trend underway. Manufacture at home and use technology instead!

With disruptive forces at its peak the game is you snooze you lose. You have downtime and the opportunity cost is high. Machines work non stop unless there is a breakdown…they are replacing human beings in most manual and repetitive tasks. Take for instance auditing where a team of auditors can do manual voucher checks by sampling, manual trend analysis and checks.

Robots don’t need to sample…they do 100% sampling, provide analysis and produce audit reports better than human beings. So for audit companies interested in driving down costs and yet producing better results-robots come in handy!

Have you seen lawyers with heaps of books for reference on court cases? Reading manual books is a waste of time, robots can do that and produce accurate reports in record time.

Have you seen many shop attendants who want salaries, stock taking staff who need to be paid. Shops which close during certain times? In the digital age, no shop should be closed…we now have unmanned shops in USA. You go to the shop, you enter the shop and the shop has no attendants. You select products you want, take them to the till which is not manned….swipe and check out!

In Australia there is a big mine which is not manned. Robots do the mining, self driven trucks transport minerals to railway wagons and everything that takes place being monitored thousands of kilometres away. No humans at these busy mines where tens of cars are always in motion nonstop.

If you have been following the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries, then you should have seen fighter drones joining the battle front dropping bombs on identified targets.

What does the future hold?

Traditional manual processing tasks are on their way out. If its repetitive and its manual, consider it out. A teacher giving student notes? A book keeper? A receptionist? A driver? A mechanic? Everything that need our hands use is on its way out. Instead we are going to rely more on our creativity skills. A robot will produce financial statements but cannot use them for decision making. A computerised mine produces mineral output but cannot seek markets.

So we need to stay ahead of the game by appreciating AI and the skills that will be key in the AI era…managing technology to assist in decision making. Making faster, well researched decision making in order to tap into existing and emerging opportunities before competitors do. The driving force is profitability.