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Entrepreneurship alive and well in Zimbabwe
Dave Lockwood, CEO of the Naledi3d Factory, one of the companies participating in the business incubator at The Innovation Hub, recently visited Zimbabwe for business - and was pleasantly surprised. Expecting the worst and seeing it first hand - a scarcity of petrol, money and food - Dave was surprised and encouraged by the resoluteness and resilience of the Zimbabwean people.
"In spite of the local situation that we all read about, people in Harare at least seem to be carrying on. You don't see people sitting around waiting to be helped, and you don't hear complaints. Many young Zimbabweans are making it happen for themselves by starting companies, working together and creating collaborative opportunities. When things start to turn, and they will, they are poised to take advantage," Dave believes. "Perhaps South Africa could draw a lesson from our neighbours. Not only are they talking about entrepreneurship, through necessity, they are doing it."
The Sheraton Hotel in Harare,
where the ITAfrica 2003 Conference and Exhibition were held. |
The exhibition area at the conference. |
A case in point is local entrepreneur Itai Masimirembwa, who started his own company, E-Learning Solutions. He chanced upon a report by the Naledi3d Factory on a study recently completed for UNESCO on using Virtual Reality (VR) as a learning tool in Africa (see previous NewsBits article). He immediately saw a business opportunity and contacted the Naledi3d Factory in Pretoria.
Two weeks prior to the start of the Zimbabwe ITAfrica 2003 Exhibition, held in early August at the Sheraton Hotel in Harare, Itai saw an opportunity to host a workshop in parallel with the exhibition, involving E-Learning Solutions, WorldLinks and the Naledi3d Factory.
He booked a side-room in the exhibition area and within two weeks had organised the E-Learning 2003 Conference, which he advertised as "an incredibly high-profile event, aimed at key decision-makers". Speakers included academics and senior representatives from the business sector, government and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Thirty delegates attended the workshop and Itai even managed to turn a small profit. "That is typical of the spirit of entrepreneurship and the ingenuity and resilience of the Zimbabweans that I came across," says Dave.
Dave was invited to deliver the keynote address at the conference, and in true entrepreneurial style, made use of the business opportunity for the Naledi3D Factory to collaborate with E-Learning Solutions in transferring VR skills to Zimbabwe and working together on larger, collaborative projects.
The first project they have identified entails the use VR as a visually interactive training tool to train new farmers in good farming practices and the underlying business skills. This is something that can have a significant and fairly immediate impact, Dave concluded.
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