Zimbabwe Women Empowered in Business (ZIWEB) empowers women in Zimbabwe with the opportunity to start and sustainably run their own business by becoming sub-distributors for Nestlé East and Southern Africa (ESAR)
From seeking to survive and sustain her family, to be able to afford luxuries that she once only dreamt of is the story of hope in the face of hardship, a story of perseverance, determination, and hard work for 37-year-old Beauty Mutanga of Harare’s Mabvuku suburb.
The mother of four did not allow the economic situation in the country to keep her down and sought ways to change her fortunes to give her family a better life when she joined ZIWEB in 2019 – the Zimbabwe Women Empowered in Business – a Nestlé ESAR initiative which aims to empower women in Zimbabwe with the opportunity to start and sustainably run their own businesses by becoming sub-distributors for Nestlé ’s affordable range of products such as NESTLÉ CREMORA, NESTLÉ CEREVITA, and NESTLÉ CERELAC.
Launched in 2019 in one of Harare’s suburbs with 29 participants, the programme has grown to almost 250 participants and has extended to other cities and towns across Zimbabwe, promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in women.
Beauty, like all the other women recruited into the programme was trained on critical aspects of business management such as entrepreneurship skills, financial, selling, product knowledge, and customer care skills. Nestlé also provided her and the other recruits with start-up capital (Loan stock) in the form of goods to sell.
Beauty’s story is now one of hope, perseverance, determination, and hard work in the face of adversity. A story of personal growth, change, and empowerment that the other 250 women recruited into the program can attest to.
Through ZIWEB, Beauty’s perception and take on life have taken a turn for the better as her goals in life have shifted from wanting to provide a meal for her family to acquiring things she once thought of as a luxury and out of reach for her.
“In 2020 I started shopping around and saving for a car and as I noted increased demand for Nestlé products from my customer base, I have since managed to buy a Honda Fit fuel saver for my business in January 2021. Currently, I am also doing professional Events Management studies, baking and selling cakes to develop my seven-roomed stand in Mabvuku, Tafara. Through ZIWEB, I am now also in a financial position to help my extended family”.
The road to success has not been without its challenges for the entrepreneur with the COVID-19 pandemic posing the biggest threat to the survival and growth of her business.
“The pandemic was a major shake to our business initially as we service the informal sector which was utterly shut down for business at the start. Most of my savings were spent on providing food for the family, and paying rent as my husband was at home also affected by the lockdown.”
The sky is the limit for this 37-year-old go-getter as her aspiration is to become a bigger Micro Nestlé Distributor, growing from selling the small PPP SKU’s to including all Nestlé products while also recruiting other women to join this life-changing empowerment program.
For more information and to watch Beauty’s stories visit www.nestle-esar.com
Readers can watch the video below:
Beauty – https://www.youtube.com/
About Nestlé
Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company. It is present in 187 countries around the world, and its 291,000 employees are committed to Nestlé’s purpose of unlocking the power of food to enhance quality for everyone, today and for generations to come. Nestlé offers a wide portfolio of products and services for people and their pets throughout their lives. Its more than 2,000 brands range from global icons like Nescafé or Nespresso to local favourites like Ricoffy. Company performance is driven by its Nutrition, Health, and Wellness strategy. Nestlé is based in the Swiss town of Vevey where it was founded more than 150 years ago.
