The Sunday News
Prosper Ndlovu in GABORONE, Botswana
SHE was only 19 when she established Thandie’s Village, a local company that specializes in value addition of the baobab fruit into a range of high value products.
The dream to grow big and the self-drive to defy the odds has yielded the results as the young company is now making huge market inroads, and is one of the 23 Zimbabwean companies exhibiting at the ongoing Global Expo Botswana here.
Ms Ngonidzashe Mazhura (25) says she is grateful to ZimTrade, which has worked with her in training and developing exporting capacity, including facilitating her participation at the expo.
She says she named the company after her mother “Thandie” as an honor for her. She is a producer of baobab powder, which has a higher concentration of vitamin c and iron, as well as baobab oil from the seed, which is used as a cosmetic mainly by ladies. The company also produces baobab candy, a value added healthier snack as well as baobab coffee.
“ZimTrade has been helpful in terms of helping me market my products, learning how to run a business and networking,” said Ms Mazhura.
“We are still growing as a company and regard ourselves as an SME. We want to make baobab products number one snack in the world, especially given the growing health consciousness and we see ourselves making inroads in this.
“There is future in this and baobab is a billion dollar venture.
The youthful entrepreneur said the positive market reception for her products at home and at the expo was encouraging. She said her company was also working with communities who harvest the baobab fruit from different parts of Zimbabwe, noting that they assist them with training and safety issues to ensure environmental sustainability.
Ms Mazhura says her passion for creating a business with a health conscious focus on diet issues was inspired by her background from the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, which has a record of mainstreaming healthful living. She said the baobab fruit for instance, has several medicinal qualities that help ease the disease burden, attributes that have been confirmed by scientific findings.
“As a young entrepreneur I believe it’s high time as women we move out of our comfort zones and do the impossible to distinguish ourselves in business, and I believe we can make it,” said Ms Mazhura.
Thandie’s village company employs five workers and is based in Harare.
Growing exports is at the heart of Zimbabwe’s transformation drive towards an upper middle income economy status vision by 2030. The participation of women and the youth in this drive is also critical as it promotes inclusive development and ensures all Zimbabweans play a role in developing their country.
