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As Zimbabwe grapples with economic challenges, the Freedom of Rights Under Sovereign (FORUS) Party believes business innovation and sustainability is the panacea hence in the last few weeks, it has been training urban communities on entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is defined as an activity that involves the discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities to introduce new goods and services, ways of organising, markets, processes, and raw materials through organising efforts that previously had not existed.
The FORUS Party has an investment vehicle called the Manyara Irene Muyenziwa (MIM) Foundation that is targeting to assist small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with innovative entrepreneurial practices and conceiving new market opportunities.
In Seke, the MIM Foundation has started poultry and horticulture projects that are benefitting the communities. Under the poultry section, the MIM Foundation provided the venture capital and is encouraging communities to galvanise innovative knowledge by entrenching and sustaining nascent businesses through value-creating funding behaviours.
“In Seke, we employed many youths who work at the poultry section. At a specific point in time, we can keep up to 10 000 broiler chicks. These require a lot of manpower to feed the chicks and clean the fowl-runs. There is also a need to employ workers who understand animal health. I was impressed by Evangelista Chekera, a young entrepreneur whose chick brooding innovation has won her local and continental awards. As FORUS Party, we value entrepreneurship among our youths and disadvantaged communities.
“The innovation of the poultry-slaughtering device makes it easier to slaughter many birds in a very short space of time. That is the kind of entrepreneurship and innovation that directly provides a solution to a challenge that will benefit the whole community. Such a device obviously benefits those who are in the broiler breeding business. Since FORUS Party is anchored on economically empowering citizens, we have taken it upon ourselves to train communities on the value of entrepreneurship and innovation,” said Dr. Emmanuel Katsvamutima, an economic advisor for FORUS Party.
On the 20th of October 2021, FORUS Party held a Capacity Building workshop in Highfield where it trained the community on empowerment and entrepreneurship development.
“In Highfield, we trained over 50 participants selected from different disciplines. A number of areas for entrepreneurial development were identified. These include entrepreneurship in gas (a source of energy for most households and companies due to the energy crisis). Other areas include poultry; soap-making; juice-making; peanut butter production; fish-farming; selling of second-hand clothes (bales); catering; horticulture; candle-making; hardware supplies; carpentry; as well as sewing and knitting,” said economist Dr. Tinashe Eric Muzamhindo, who was the lead-trainer in Highfield.
The factors that distinguish entrepreneurs most strongly are innovation, opportunity recognition, process, and growth in a business, and employment of strategic management practices in the business. FORUS Party promised to work on these factors as it drives entrepreneurship in pursuit of making Zimbabwe an economic giant.