Living Zimbabwe

Tag: Business & Economy

  • Can Zimbabwean Diasporans Take A Page Out of Barkue Tubman’s Book?

    Can Zimbabwean Diasporans Take A Page Out of Barkue Tubman’s Book?

    Barkue Tubman was recently featured on CNN African Voices where they highlighted her story of how she left Liberia because of turmoil and after an extended period of time away, returned home to help with it’s redevelopment. The thing that was striking about her story is that it is akin to the lives of many Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Some of these diasporans have made a choice to return home and others are still out there contemplating a move back home.

    Whatever the case may be, in the time spent away from home, people further their education or gain new skills. These acquisitions enable these people to build lives for themselves with some going on to be very successful. More often than not, the things that these people know are very applicable in a Zimbabwean context. Whenever they visit home or talk to people about business opportunities, it can sometimes become apparent that there are gaps in the market that they are able to fill. Some of these gaps may be for services that would be of benefit to a community, city or the nation as well the person who has chosen to fill that gap.

    With that idea in place and down on paper, comes the task of trying to get it off the ground. But, with Zimbabwe being Zimbabwe and Africa being Africa, getting the idea off the ground can prove to be a bit a challenge, a challenge much greater than what would have been faced in the country that this person had been calling home.

    Some may face a raft of road blocks which could include but are not limited to, getting the necessary registration and/or licenses, capital, officials who have not been paid accordingly hampering progress and the list goes on.

    Barkue’s story follows a similar path where she moved to the United States, got an education and had a very successful career in the entertainment industry. On a visit to Liberia, she saw a gap in the entertainment industry that she could fill. She put together a business plan and worked on making it a reality but things didn’t quite turn out the way that she had hoped (you can watch the footage of how and why below). However, she did manage to find opportunities where she could use her skills and it paid off tremendously for her.

    There are a number of Zimbabweans who do want to return home and work for themselves but have a fear that things will not work out as planned. Zimbabwe may have a mix and match of similar and different challenges as far as starting a business goes but, could Barkue’s story serve as one of inspiration? Does it go to show that even if the odds are stacked against you in something you have set your mind on, that we should remain open to and perceptive to other (unrealised) opportunities?

    Should diasporans dispel fears of returning home to either start businesses or become a part of established businesses and contribute to rebuilding the nation?

  • Can Air Zimbabwe Fly Back Into The Black Like Air Pacific?

    Can Air Zimbabwe Fly Back Into The Black Like Air Pacific?

    Fiji, a former British Colony, a nation that was expelled from the Commonwealth and one that has various sanctions placed upon it, is a small island nation in the South Pacific ocean. It is ruled by what many seem to deem a dictatorial government lead by Commander of the Fijian Military Forces Frank Bainimarama. Does it’s recent history sound somewhat familiar?

    A number of airlines connect Fiji to a few of it’s neighbouring island’s and countries further afield with one of the service providers being Air Pacific, the national carrier. Like a number of airlines around the world who have found the aviation industry a challenge to make a profit in, Air Pacific saw itself slip into the red. But, this year they managed to slip back into the black and recorded an operating profit of $11.5 million versus an operation loss of $2.6 million the previous financial year. This bottom line result was attributed in part to an increase in the tourist numbers.

    As far as ownership goes, Air Pacific is owned by the government but now wholly! The government holds a 51% stake, Qantas 46.3% with the remaining 2.7% being held by other entities. Despite recent attempts by the government to exert greater control over the airline, it is still operating as normal.

    Looking at Air Zimbabwe which is wholly owned by the government, the national carrier is in a serious state of distress and owes millions to various creditors and unpaid staff. At present, Air Zimbabwe is being threatened with losing it’s membership from The International Air Transport Association (IATA) over the renewal of its Operational Safety Audit. If this does happen, it means that the airline will not able to fly to international airports and airspace. But, this may be something that might not be a major concern seeing as they are currently only flying domestically.

    If the government deems it important enough for the country to not lose it’s national carrier and provides it with the minimum it requires in order to get back into full operation what then? The way in which they have been operating over the years has obviously not been working. Privatisation is something that has been spoken about in the past but something that the government does not seem keen on. That said, could them implementing a model such as Air Pacific’s work in transforming Air Zim into a viable airline? The Fijian government is one that likes to be in control but as far as the running of their national airline goes, they are only a majority shareholder. To add to that, it’s operations are overseen by a CEO who has no political affiliations and is not influenced by politics.

    Tourists numbers to Zimbabwe are reportedly on the rise which means that Air Zimbabwe will not be flying empty planes if they get back into full operation. As they continue to not fly international and try to figure out how to stay alive, other airlines are taking advantage of the huge gap they have left in the market. In recent months, South African Airways increased flight frequency into Harare and Emirates which recently started operating a 5 day/week service into Harare announced that they will soon start daily flights into the city. This goes to show that there isn’t a lack of travelers to and from Zimbabwe.

    With the passage of time, regional and international carriers will continue to increase their market share and squeeze the national airline out of a space that they should be dominating. Air Zim may need to quickly learn a lesson on ownership and operation from an airline such as Air Pacific and get themselves to where they should be before it’s too late.

    Is it already too late?

  • The Incredible Potential of Our People And Our Exciting Future

    Zimbabwe has the most incredible people. We are a nation of naturally born entrepreneurs who have a deeply engrained “never give up attitude”. You see business happening on Every corner . The majority of people you speak to are filled with optimism about our exciting future. As we work with more and more entrepreneurs we see a strong spirit of hope, enthusiasm, excitement and passion coming out of each person we connect with and this is the nature of our people.

    Yes we face challenges but all countries face challenges. We all need to stop pointing fingers, work with what we do have and build our future. Our trials make us stronger and teach us to become more creative.

    We are in for an exciting and interesting future and I’m so proud to be a Zimbabwean 🙂

    This has been a submission by Sally Palmer at Sabrebusinessworld. If you have something to share, you too can become a Citizen Journalist by submitting your story here: Citizen Journalism by Living Zimbabwe.

  • Cassette Tapes Still Thriving in Zimbabwe

    Cassette Tapes Still Thriving in Zimbabwe

    A large majority of you have probably had a good laugh about how decades ago cassette tapes were a popular source of media that was used when buying, storing and of course “dubbing” music. If you went through this era then you probably also remember rewinding or forwarding tapes using an Eversharp 15M ball point pen and knowing that in order to get to a particular song, you had to turn it so many times clockwise or counter-clockwise. For some, having to pick and chose songs with a pen became a necessity when the fast-forward or rewind button on their trusty cassette player stopped working.

    Technology has taken a great leap forward and now people buy and store their music in digital formats such as mp3’s. If you are to roam around flea markets in Zimbabwe you will be sure to find someone sitting at their stall with a laptop ready to take requests of and make a copy of whatever music or movies you are after and only for a few dollars. This practise seems to be okay with the only material that you cannot be openly seen to be making and selling illegal copies of being anything by Zimbabwean artists. The Zimbabwean authorities do try to take a hard line against copyright infringements of material by local artists.

    To that end, there was a recent feature on CNN by Robyn Curnow about the resurgence of cassette tapes in Zimbabwe. She featured a cassette manufacturer, Diamond Studios that saw an opportunity and set up operations 3 years ago. Their current output is 10,000 tapes a month, which they ship to customers in not only Zimbabwe but Mozambique and Botswana as well. This has provided them with a more lucrative revenue stream than producing CD’s alone because of how quickly and easily they are pirated.

    The interesting bit is that going back to an old technology has been more beneficial for artists than CD’s. The reasons stated for this were that:

    • making pirate copies of tapes for profit is not as simple and easy as it is with discs
    • people in many areas of the country do not have a steady supply of electricity or any at all. This means that they have to run their radios on batteries and tapes are not as power hungry as CD’s so it makes sense to play them instead

    Even though cassettes tapes may be a dead technology in most of the world, it is still thriving in a few places and working to the advantage of many people. Manufacturers are making a living, musicians are getting paid their dues and consumers have their favourite music in a format that suits their needs.

  • Should Air Zimbabwe Be Privatised?

    Should Air Zimbabwe Be Privatised?

    Air Zimbabwe like many other parastatals has been in a downward spiral for the last few years. It has been plagued with all sorts of issues with the majority being of a financial nature. Its pilots are striking at the moment over unpaid wages and this is causing a lot of turmoil. In response to the strike action, the airline fired its pilots after they refused to return to work by a given date.

    By doing a bit of analysis it seems as if a major problem is that the airline is a government entity. Because of being a parastatal it succumbs to a lot of political interference. That being said, some of the decisions being made may not be in the best interests of the business as a whole. Without naming names, some decisions seems to be made to suite the personal interests of a select few.

    Air Zimbabwe is managed by individuals who don’t seem to have what it takes to review the airline and turn it into a profitable business. The reasons for that may be that they were put in those positions not because they were the right people for the job but because of their affiliations. Another thing that they may be more concerned about is filling their pockets with as much money as they can before they move on. Some of the statements that their executives make just don’t make sense. In the last few hours news has come out that Air Zimbabwe has reportedly purchased 2 Airbus A340 aircraft for $400 million. This is what the chairman Jonathan Kadzura had to say about the supposed purchase, “I have also heard about it (new planes), but to be frank, I am not aware of it.” This and other confused statements leave you in a position where you can’t trust of have much faith in its management.

    One of the best things that could be done for the airline would be to privatise it. Making such a move could bring in much needed investment which would not only carry the airline forward but also help it get out of debt. Such a move could also bring about a complete change of management and much needed corporate restructuring.

    The major stumbling block in a move towards privatisation seems to be the government itself who just don’t want to let go of it and other failing parastatals. The reasons for this could range from wanting to keep a grip on anything and everything to greed to monopolisation and the list goes on. If they haven’t already done so they need to realise that there are some things that they are not good at and continue to fail it and in the interest of economic recovery should let go of.

    If the downward spiral is not brought under control soon Air Zimbabwe is going to crash and burn and leave Zimbabwe with no national airline.