The men of honour, is a group of Christian businessmen who are mostly members of the Maranatha (PAOG) church. The men of honour have been organizing annual business seminars since 2003 at which various topics on wealth creation are usually discussed.

The Men of Honour organized their 9th Annual business seminar on the 7th of April 2012 at Moba Hotel. Moba Hotel is Kitwe’s newest hotel located by the river banks of the Kafue River, near the Kafue river road bridge on the Ndola-Kitwe Highway.

The purpose  of the seminar was to empower men and women to take charge in developing the nation of Zambia, under the theme ”More money in your pocket – opportunities and challenges in the market place”. Originally, three prominent speakers were invited to share their experiences and knowledge with the participants. One speaker, Ms Miyanda Maimbo, did not come due to some other commitments. However, the other two speakers; Mr. Elijah Banda, SC and Mr. Chance Kabaghe were present.

In opening the workshop, the patron of Men of Honour and senior pastor at Maranatha church, Bishop Sky Banda, shared some important tips to financial success. Bishop Banda encouraged participants to embark on creation of generational wealth. He gave a quote from the Bible; Proverbs 13:22, which says ‘a good man leaves inheritance to his children’s children’.

He summarized his motivational talk as follows;

That anybody can make money. Money is not just for the elite. In order for one to make money and succeed, there was need for one to make decisions that are aimed at success.

That money gives birth to money. People must learn to invest. The rich people allow money to work for them; they don’t work for money. A farmer who eats all his seed will have no future harvests.

That a man must “mind his own business”. A man must ask himself a question in life; Whom am I making rich? A man must make his own ladder and climb it using his dominant skills. ’’No one can pay you your real worth. You can only pay yourself well if you work for yourself”.

That one should learn to grow multiple income streams. “Do not live by your salary, live by your income”.

That one should learn to count one’s own revenue sources and ask themselves a question; “How manyventures do I have that give me daily income, weekly income, quarterly income, annual income and orfuture income (securities, shares etc)”.

That one should set annual financial targets. ”how much money do I want to have at the end of the year”.

That one should sell off assets that they do not need or those that they do not use. It would be amazing how much money that one would raise by selling an extra   TV, extra car, cooker e.t.c., to raise more money for investment.

That a person must spend less than what they earn. A person ought to have the will to save in order to have  the ability to save.

That the good  thing that a man can do for the poor is not to be one of them. A man should not expect another person to make his life better.

Then it was time for Mr.  Kabaghe to share his wealth of Knowledge and experience. Mr. Kabaghe is ThePresident of the Zambia Association of Manufacturers (first black Zambian to hold that post).He is thecurrent Chairman of the Zambia Business Forum. He was the first chief executive officer of the Food Reserve Agency, and  former Member of Parliament for Matero constituency.

The topic that Mr. Kabaghe discussed was; ’’THE HIGH COST OF DOING BUSINESS IN ZAMBIA, CAN ZAMBIAN ENTREPRENEURS REMAIN COMPETITIVE IN THE CURRENT ECONOMIC ERA?”

Mr. Kabaghe began by sharing his experience as a farmer. He shared with the participants how profitable it was for a farmer to grow and sell green maize.

He gave an example that currently a 50kg bag of dry maize sells for K60,000 at FRA and yet one can make the same amount of money by selling

30 cobs of green maize which go for K2000 each.

30 cobs of maize will weigh around 5kg.

One hectare of dry maize earns a farmer K6,000,000 in one farming season.

Mr. Kabaghe earns K90, 000,000 in one hectare by selling green maize in half a season.

He again plants another hectare of green maize which he sells in the second half of the season to make another K90, 000,000.

He also shared his experience as a farmer who now makes different kinds of juice from fruits such as mango, oranges, and guavas which he sells. He has invested in plant and machinery to start canning the juices at his farm at Balastone Park in Lusaka.

He also gave his regrets for having run for political office as a member of parliament. He reflected on that experience as a time that he earned his money as a businessman and had to redistribute his wealth back to his constituency. He had to take care of funerals in the community; he had to take care of the sick and the hungry. It was difficult for him to enjoy his wealth when the people who placed all their hopes in him were starving. He emphasized that running for political office was about service to the people.

Mr. Kabaghe said that Zambia remained a very attractive destination to do business. He said that the MMD government created an environment for business due to attractive investment policies and the available natural resources. However, he emphasized that Zambia was to derive the benefit of sound investment policies by embarking on value addition to its natural resources. There could be no development in Zambia without the growth of the manufacturing sector. The growth of the manufacturing sector depended on the lowering of interest rates.

Setting up plant and machinery required long term financing. Long term financing could only be attainedthrough loans. In order to stimulate the growth of the manufacturing sector in Zambia, the governmentneeded to lower interest rates and to re-capitalize the Development Bank of Zambia (DBZ).

He also spoke of the need for government to give incentives to the manufacturing industry in order to attract value addition on natural resources. He implored participants to join the voices of all those that were lobbying government to lower interest rates and offer attractive incentives to local manufacturers. The creation of employment opportunities in Zambia lay in the development of the manufacturing sector.

Mr. Kabaghe also shared that for an individual to succeed in a competitive business environment, therewas need to:

• Look for a niche market for their products.
• Develop smart partnerships with others
• Insist on originality. Making one’s own brand to be unique all the time.
• Embrace technology
• Have connections and create consortiums with others
• Change the culture of doing business
• Offer incentives and good rewards to employees to reduce thefts (theft adds to the cost of doing business.

 

Then there came Mr. Elijah Banda. Mr. Banda, State Counsel, is the vice President for Pan African Lawyers Union (Southern Africa) and is the principal partner in ECB Legal practitioners.

His session looked at ”BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS (MARRIAGES MADE IN HEAVEN OR HELL”.

Mr. Banda shared with participants of his experiences as a lawyer who has had to deal with various disputes that have commonly affected people in business.

Most people have disputes in business because they do not reduce all their agreements in writing and have had to do business on mere trust. A person might have done business with another person in the belief that the other person was a brother or a good Christian and would honour and respect all that was agreed upon. People had a general tendency of creating business partnerships by overlooking the importance of legal opinion or guidance from experts. These tendencies have cost a lot of people what could have made good fortunes.

He reflected on the most common pitfalls of partnerships as being;

• Lack of ethics in the way partners do their business.
• Lack of a clear vision. Partnerships collapse because partners do not share the same vision for long.
• Partnerships fail due to dishonesty and mismanagement emanating from greed.

In order for one to start a sustainable partnership, Mr. Banda advised that;

A person wishing to go into partnership must do a due diligence on the partnership. This would include searching of facts about the other person (their past business history, etc.)

A person must engage and seek professional guidance from Lawyers, accountants, and investment consultants in order to make informed business decisions.

When coming into partnership, a person must make sure that all agreements are drawn by a lawyer. Lawyers always make sure that all details relating to a contract are covered.

In the afternoon session there were three exhibitors who displayed their products.

YATU TEA

YATU TEAis a company that packages tea Leaves from Malawi. It is based in Kalulushi. They gaveout some free tea bags to all the women participants.

LUSAKA STOCK BROKERS LTD

The Lusaka stock brokers advised participants to invest their money in shares.

They gave an example of how investing as little as K1,000,000 could earn a person as much as K50,000,000 when the price of shares go up. A person who buys shares in a company that lists its shares on the stock exchange for the first time (IPO) is likely to make more money from his initial investment.  Normally, the share prices for a first time listed company, Initial Public Offer (IPO), are low and then the prices begin to rise over a period of time.

WEB DEV TECHNOLOGIES LTD.

WEBDEV made an impressive power point presentation. The company specializes in software solutions. Their business includes setting up websites for businesses. They have created a website,www.zambiatrading.com, where all businesses can advertise their products and set up an online business directory.

BEADZY JEWELLERY

BEADZY JEWELLERYis a company that was registered in 2012. It was started by its proprietor Miriam Daka as a hobby in 2004. It started when Miriam undertook to repair her mother’s pearl necklaces. People became interested in her hand made necklaces and she started making necklaces for people within her neighborhood at a small fee. BEADZY have continued to makesome of the finest hand made necklaces in Zambia.

In the end, participants were awarded with certificates of attendance.

The business seminar was worth attending as it gave a clear insight of how one could develop a business acumen that could result in ”putting more money in the pocket”.

___________________________________