So if you are asked about your forum what it stands for will you say? The answer is simple. ZBIN helps members to have access to the following:
1. Access to Markets
2. Access to Capital
3. Access to free information and resources and
Our forum is a Diaspora Friendly forum and has been in existence since February 2015. We got registered formally as a trust in March 2017 and our registration number is MA 000457/2017. Made up of a board headed by Ms Martha Tholanah, the board is made up of seasoned professionals from various fields such as Accounting, Law, Engineering, NGO, Consulting, Nursing and Human Resources. Fifty percent of our board is from the Diaspora and sixty percent being women.
The Finance Profession had more representation on the board with Farai based in USA who is the deputy board chair (CGMA, CPA),Tavaziva based in UK (CA) and your trully (ACMA,CGMA). The board has been funding all initiatives to date such as website registration and management, forum registration, forum business trips and the provision of free business resources over the past 2 years. With a strong corporate governance structure and culture, the term of office for the board is 5 years and we can only be re elected for a maximum term limit of 10 years. As a centre of excellency on corporate governance, we hope to transfer a successful ZBIN organisation before the expiry of our maximum term limits.
Achievements to date
1. Successful trips (X3) to Mozambique to explore business opportunities, kindly refer to the website Gallery for
2. Setting up a website www.zbinworld.com that has reached more 200,000 views. The website has a record number of free investment advice, more than 250 in total and we achieved this in less than 6 months.
3. Current projects to register a poultry marketing company to help members to sell their poultry products in bulk and enjoy economies of scale.
4. Carried out a mining tour of Mashonaland West which helped members with free information on mining opportunities.More tours lined up for the second quarter of the year.
5. Introduced a tender tracker to help members in the Diaspora with access to opportunities presented by tenders in Zimbabwe.
6. We have 5,000 members on our ZBIN Group who are constantly sharing business information and ideas. Professional groups that are well managed and have attracted a number of foreigners from Ghana(Rabbit Group), India and South Africa (Human Resources) and Malawians (Malawi General Group). This is in addition to the 28,000 members that we have on Facebook.
7. Carried out outreach activities for a number of churches and church groups inspiring them to identify and take advantage of opportunities. Outreach programmes to local universities is next in the pipeline.
8. Influenced the drafting of the National Diaspora Strategy.
Plans in the Pipeline
Everyone on the group is working on a part-time basis and this is not an effective and efficient way to deliver our 3 Objectives already mentioned. We have done extremely well on Objective 3, Provision of Free Information and Resources. Information on its own is not good enough. We need to see member getting access to capital and actually starting businesses. ZBIN should be able to say we helped 2000 members to have access to capital, they started business projects and the members are so and so. We would like to see members who got additional capital which they injected in their businesses and this should be tracked.
We would like to see members who have had access to markets. We would like to see someone saying through ZBIN I accessed this new market, I got help from this group to sell x amount of goods which generated xyz amount of revenue.
So provision of information will continue but the focus will shift a bit—more action and evidence of what we are doing on the ground. How many members have accessed Capital? How many members have accessed Markets? Objective 1 and 2 are going to be our top priorities for the rest of the year. We already have a scorecard on our site which provides direction of our focus as a group. The group will review it in the next weeks.
Member Registration
In order to effectively carry out our objectives, we will have to recruit qualified and experienced personnel. We will need a CEO/Administrator, Access to Markets Manager, Access to Capital Manager, Research and Innovation Manager Positions. We have various options for fund raising which we are exploring. One of the options is raising funds from registered members. We feel this initiative will cover 5-10% of the needs of the organisation, a few funders have shown interest in our work and we will announce once we have tangible discussions going on.
So our registration is $10 per member for 6 months or $20 for a full year. The benefits of registering are that you help your organisation to grow and secondly, you enjoy a number of benefits listed below:
1 Exclusive Access to Advertising Opportunities on all ZBIN forums such as our website, newsletter and conferences.
2. ZBIN Paid Up Member Facebook Page: Exclusive forum for paid up members to be created, a platform where members have access to high quality business plans and other investment trends and opportunities.
3. Free resources such as Tax laws, Loan Application Templates, Cash flow, Market Survey templates for download.
5. Free Trainings and Participation on ZBIN Conferences and Tours:The Online Forex Group is going to be the first ZBIN group to obtain free trainings, the training on Online Forex Trading. The cost of the training is worth $250 but members will pay nothing! We will negotiate for more training partnership opportunities for our members.
6. Better Quality Information: We have demonstrated information provision as a key strength for ZBIN. Our record number of free investment advice is unprecedented! We will continue to provide general information to unregistered members. Registered members will however have access to better quality
7. Tenders Tracker Access: A first of its kind in Zimbabwe, the tender tracker is a database of all available tenders in Zimbabwe. Information shared is not easily accessible to non-resident Zimbabweans. Members should therefore have access to opportunities in Zimbabwe and track trends. The Diaspora is highly encouraged to access this tracker with a view to establish partnerships with locals and participate on high value tenders. In future we hope to expand the tenders and cover the whole Southern Africa Region.
8. Endorsement for Credit Access: Did you see a recent Homelink Advert which we shared widely? For you to access loans, you have to be a member of a registered business association-this is where ZBIN comes in by not only endorsing but providing helful advice on loan or credit applications.
9. Diaspora- Locals Linkages Programme Banefits: We are the pioneers of the Diaspora-Locals Partnerships Programme Diaspora Linkages in Zimbabwe:. The Diaspora Community remits close to a billion dollars to Zimbabwe per annum. This community can even increase the amount of money they send if sufficient conditions and enabling environment is put in place. Through our website, we have become a hit with the Diaspora interested in investing in the country. There are a lot of inquiries and to respond to that we are refining the list of companies and consultants on our register so that the 2 parties can mutually benefit. Economic conditions in the Diaspora are different from those prevailing in Zimbabwe. Some have access to credit, access to information and other resources. Some are interested in opening exclusive distributorship franchises; to do this they need local partnerships-In comes ZBIN with a list of registered members from Zimbabwe and the Diaspora for possible partnerships. The advantages will be plenty and those who have been with ZBIN since inception can testify, more opportunities should come with the growth of the forum in the coming few months. We are also increasingly becoming the window of investment into Zimbabwe by foreign nationals and this should also benefit our members.
Registration Modalities
How much to register? $10 for 6 months or $20 for full year
Member Registration forms can download it below or abe accessed from Catherine Shava who is based in Bulawayo. Her number contact number is +263 776 196 313. She will send you guidance on registration and next steps to follow.
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Open in new tab What happens to Unregistered Members?
We will continue to provide information the way we have been doing-general business information, engaging everyone, inspiring members, providing them with resources whenever we can because we enjoy doing our work. We enjoy seeing success stories because this is good for you, your family, local community and Zimbabwe and the region as a whole.
