How I got to be an Entrepreneur
Frustration, I look at my world, my space today, my heart bleeds, am frustrated by the gross incompetence of clueless and unrepentant African leaders failing to address unemployment and poverty amongst the most productive youths. I am particularly annoyed by the inability to simply tap into the energies and innovations of young people. I see young brilliant minds in my country hero worshipping mediocrity, corrupt and evil individuals enriching themselves at the expense of poor citizens. What worries me most is the fact that these elders are not even embarrassed to steal a generation of minds, aspirations, hopes and dreams. I am frustrated. But this isn't the sole reason I became an entrepreneur, I always thought I could motivate a few young people to see the world in a different way.
After my first degree in urban planning, I founded Development Reality Institute, a climate change social enterprise to motivate young people to see opportunities in the climate change space. My passion is was to create climate resilient communities and finding space for youths in all that. I believe that scalable solutions to global climate change have the potential to transform business models and can rescue millions of youths from poverty through strategic green enterprises and increasing employability.
My organisation is a green innovation space. It runs a catalytic and innovative climate change capacity building program for youths in Africa. This dynamic and interactive platform uses a combination of Internet tools, knowledge management products, and an incubation fund to create the next generation of social entrepreneurs. The model puts knowledge at the centre of changing attitudes and behaviors through a Climate Change Virtual School. This triggers environmental and societal benefits that avert poverty and income losses to already disadvantaged communities through the provision of skills that shape their behavior and decision making process. It also creates alternative sources of income for youths by enabling them to identify opportunities which they can exploit to compensate for financial losses accruing from changing environmental circumstances through provision of an incubation financing facility to test ideas. My next big step is to scale this approach to employability, ICT innovation and the climate crisis
Bitcoin enthusiast in me
I am a big fan of innovation and new things, in 2014, my friend Tawanda Kembo introduced me to bitcoin and the blockchain, my life changed. I fail to understand why the world cannot see this huge potential and opportunity to make systems work especially in Africa where the need is the most. With Tawanda, I co-founded Bitfinance, a blockchain startup based in Zimbabwe with the idea of revolutionizing the concept of money in Africa. Its an exciting journey.
After a few years of running these two organisations, I am not as frustrated, I am motivated to do more, a new generation is uprising and I am confident that we will take over.