Congratulations for making it into 2018! The year 2017 was no doubt a difficult year and we look forward to better times in 2018. Have you made any new year resolutions yet? Some go for fasting for the first few days of each year, some jot down what they intend to achieve and some simply do not write down anything at all. Our recommendation is just do what works best for you. As good corporate practice, we however encourage our members to have a strategic plan in place which you must follow A strategic plan will give you guidance on what you need to do during the year. It keeps you focused and whilst success is not guaranteed, but at least you will be working towards a goal…you keep your eyes on the ball.

So what did the forum achieve during the year? We closely look at progress made since the inception of the forum:I

In February 2015, ZBIN is formed by a group of online friends becoming Zimbabwe’s first start up business forum.

In November 2016, ZBIN launches a website, www.zbinworld.

in December 2016, ZBIN gets a Board of Directors (Made up of 60% Diasporans)

In March 2017, ZBIN gets formally Registered.

In May 2017, ZBIN hires staff members.

In June 2017, ZBIN Opens Offices in Monavale, Harare.

In July 2017, ZBIN launches a highly successful regional carpet making course that results in the forum travelling to almost every major city in Southern Africa. The influence of the program sees thousands of women indirectly benefiting the program. The Malawi Government adopts the program, the course gets accreditation in South Africa. By far the most successful Zimbabwe training that affected the region in 2017.

In December 2017, ZBIN advises His Excellency to make follow ups with the SA Business Forum for another meeting on investment. Advice written on his page and surprisingly is taken up and results in the most over subscribed business forum ever by Diasporans. Not surprising as we had been advocating for Diaspora participation in business.

Our website provided Zimbabweans with over 470 free articles, they were viewed more than 300.000 times and helped foreign nationals too as we covered regional country specific issues. We became the most known Zimbabweans business forum beyond the borders through use of Social Media. The number of regional nationals stand at more than 1.000.

Failures:
Our objectives are as follows:
1. Help members with access to opportunities information.
2. Help members with access to finance.
3. Help members with access to markets.
4. Capacity Building, Advocacy and Promotion of Networking.

We have done quite well on 3 of the above objectives except Access to Finance! Noone can say I accessed funding from ZBIN in 2017. We did help a number of our tapestry programme trainees with funding proposals but this is a secondary objective….the primary one is $s,$s,$s….members should be able to say we got so much, we should confidently say we disbursed so much in figures. This is going to be one of our major objectives in 2018. Access to dollars and successful implementation of projects.

Do not miss out the book we are compiling for 2018, a collection of some of our best published stories, a critical analysis of the business environment and prediction of what the future will be like.

Asante Sana.

Please make sure you get your name into our database for possible funding and assistance opportunities.

Submit the following details about your business venture:

Name of Business:

Name of Business Contact :

Business Contact No:

Registered or Not Registered:

Business Sector:

Hundreds of people have already send us their details, it only takes 5 minutes but opens a lot of business opportunities for you at no additional cost. Send your details to vicmunemo@yahoo.com and copy victor@zbinworld.com

As Zimbabwe starts the economic turn around journey there is one area we recommend for our members. The area used to give returns of 12 for every dollar invested. You want to do a guess work of the area? Well the area is Dairy Farming this is according to research studies carried out by the Zimbabwe Association of Dairy Farmers or ZADF. Their website is www.zadf.co.zw and contains a lot of good information on dairy farming in Zimbabwe. We recommend that you visit the site and read a lot of useful information.

This weekend we are not in dairy farming but we zero in on a lucrative sector or energy. The demand for energy keeps going up. This week we covered the expansion of urban areas in Zimbabwe, the urbanisation process is growing at a faster rate than ZESA can cope with. As a result the gap is filled with alternative energy of which solar is a good option.

Solar has been in demand and those who made big monies did not supply individual households. They targeted Government, NGO and Big Corporates. Even local authorities participated on the tender market with Murewa RDC and lately Rusape Town Council flighting tenders. The trend for local authorities is likely to keep going upwards.

This is the sector where the money is, an improvement in the economy means more demand for energy especially in the farming and peri urban areas. All the new suburbs coming up will have to temporarily rely on solar energy before ZESA connects them. We therefore urge our members to do a detailed study of this sector with a view to invest in it in the nearby future.