News / National
UK-based couple set up massive poultry project in rural Tsholotsho
15 Mar 2022 at 01:34hrs | Views
A UNITED Kingdom (UK) based couple has invested back home through establishing a massive poultry project in rural Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North, as it believes that there are plenty of business opportunities in the country.
Mr Jabulani Sibanda and his wife Joselyn Sibanda (52) started investing in the country by building a bar in their rural home in Mbambangamandla Village in Tsholotsho back in 2014.
Since then, they have established a grocery shop and poultry project with over 4 000 chickens that are ready for the market.
They also have an eatery selling mostly isitshwala and chicken.
The couple also owns a grinding mill that serves the local community and is working towards setting up an irrigation scheme in the same area.
A Chronicle news crew on Sunday caught up with Mrs Sibanda at her immaculate homestead in Tsholotsho which is a fusion of a modern and traditional set up.
A health worker in the UK, she returns every December to work on the land, leaving her husband overseas.
When she is in the country, Mrs Sibanda is rarely in the city as she enjoys the quietness of rural life where she can mingle with community members with much ease.
She said before investing in the country, she faced so much opposition from other diasporan based citizens who believe that there are no investment opportunities to be tapped in the country.
However, Mrs Sibanda does not regret investing back into her community.
"I have lived in the UK since 2001.
I work in the health sector but I had experienced challenges regularising my stay until everything was fixed in 2011.
That is when my husband and I decided to mobilise resources to come back home and in 2014 we finally came back into the country," she said.
Mrs Sibanda said they established a bar but believe their business venture could have been a mistake as there is a mismatch between their targeted clients and the products they are offering.
She said the family in 2017 started a poultry project which saw their fortunes improving.
When she returns to the UK, her daughter Ms Thembinkosi Nyoni, an accounting and finance Lupane State University graduate, manages the projects.
"I started the poultry project with 3 000 chickens.
By then the business was good, we were supplying high schools in the area such as Tsholotsho High, Dinyane, Jimila and almost all the butcheries at Tsholotsho Business Centre.
But in 2019 into 2020, there was a downturn in the business, I had to reduce the numbers of chickens that I was supplying to my clients," she said.
"Initially I had a contract with Tsholotsho High School supplying it with 150 broilers every week and Dinyane High School, 200 broilers every Thursday.
But with Covid-19, schools have not been operating fully and this affected business and power cuts have worsened in the business centre resulting in some of the butcheries and restaurants making few orders."
Mrs Sibanda said their biggest clients at the moment are civil servants among other formally employed people working at Tsholotsho Business Centre.
But clients, she said, do not equal their production capacity.
She also supplies families of her diaspora-based friends and can make deliveries even in Bulawayo.
Mrs Sibanda said for her business to expand, market synergies remain her biggest challenge.
She said she also requires land as she wants to invest more resources into the country.
"We started a poultry project, but we do not have adequate space. That is why we have started the project in the backyard of our homestead.
I had hoped to get a plot so that the project could be expansive but at the moment I don't have the land.
We have knocked on so many doors in the hope to get the land but we have not been successful," said Mrs Sibanda.
She is keeping Sasso and broiler chickens which are being sold for R80 per bird.
Mrs Sibanda has been in the country since December and while in the diaspora her daughter manages the family business.
She said she had missed her culture, conversing in isiNdebele and just experiencing the long summer periods in the country.
She encouraged other diaspora-based citizens to plough back into the country.
"The message is that home is always going to be home.
This is the place where you would feel free and be happy around the people who know you and understand your language.
While it was a privilege for me to work in the UK, that does not make it my home, this is my home," she said.
Her daughter, Ms Nyoni said it was not easy to run the expansive family business when her parents are away.
Ms Nyoni said she is always constantly in touch with her parents on how to run the business profitably when they are away.
"I never thought I would be working at our home; I am a finance and accounting graduate so I thought I would be employed in big corporations in the city.
But I find myself managing the family business which is not an easy thing to do.
So, I keep learning the ropes but this has been a good opportunity.
"When mum is not around, we constantly talk on the phone as I have to make sure that everything is run successfully," said Ms Nyoni.
Mr Jabulani Sibanda and his wife Joselyn Sibanda (52) started investing in the country by building a bar in their rural home in Mbambangamandla Village in Tsholotsho back in 2014.
Since then, they have established a grocery shop and poultry project with over 4 000 chickens that are ready for the market.
They also have an eatery selling mostly isitshwala and chicken.
The couple also owns a grinding mill that serves the local community and is working towards setting up an irrigation scheme in the same area.
A Chronicle news crew on Sunday caught up with Mrs Sibanda at her immaculate homestead in Tsholotsho which is a fusion of a modern and traditional set up.
A health worker in the UK, she returns every December to work on the land, leaving her husband overseas.
When she is in the country, Mrs Sibanda is rarely in the city as she enjoys the quietness of rural life where she can mingle with community members with much ease.
She said before investing in the country, she faced so much opposition from other diasporan based citizens who believe that there are no investment opportunities to be tapped in the country.
However, Mrs Sibanda does not regret investing back into her community.
"I have lived in the UK since 2001.
I work in the health sector but I had experienced challenges regularising my stay until everything was fixed in 2011.
That is when my husband and I decided to mobilise resources to come back home and in 2014 we finally came back into the country," she said.
Mrs Sibanda said they established a bar but believe their business venture could have been a mistake as there is a mismatch between their targeted clients and the products they are offering.
She said the family in 2017 started a poultry project which saw their fortunes improving.
When she returns to the UK, her daughter Ms Thembinkosi Nyoni, an accounting and finance Lupane State University graduate, manages the projects.
"I started the poultry project with 3 000 chickens.
By then the business was good, we were supplying high schools in the area such as Tsholotsho High, Dinyane, Jimila and almost all the butcheries at Tsholotsho Business Centre.
But in 2019 into 2020, there was a downturn in the business, I had to reduce the numbers of chickens that I was supplying to my clients," she said.
"Initially I had a contract with Tsholotsho High School supplying it with 150 broilers every week and Dinyane High School, 200 broilers every Thursday.
But with Covid-19, schools have not been operating fully and this affected business and power cuts have worsened in the business centre resulting in some of the butcheries and restaurants making few orders."
Mrs Sibanda said their biggest clients at the moment are civil servants among other formally employed people working at Tsholotsho Business Centre.
But clients, she said, do not equal their production capacity.
She also supplies families of her diaspora-based friends and can make deliveries even in Bulawayo.
Mrs Sibanda said for her business to expand, market synergies remain her biggest challenge.
She said she also requires land as she wants to invest more resources into the country.
"We started a poultry project, but we do not have adequate space. That is why we have started the project in the backyard of our homestead.
I had hoped to get a plot so that the project could be expansive but at the moment I don't have the land.
We have knocked on so many doors in the hope to get the land but we have not been successful," said Mrs Sibanda.
She is keeping Sasso and broiler chickens which are being sold for R80 per bird.
Mrs Sibanda has been in the country since December and while in the diaspora her daughter manages the family business.
She said she had missed her culture, conversing in isiNdebele and just experiencing the long summer periods in the country.
She encouraged other diaspora-based citizens to plough back into the country.
"The message is that home is always going to be home.
This is the place where you would feel free and be happy around the people who know you and understand your language.
While it was a privilege for me to work in the UK, that does not make it my home, this is my home," she said.
Her daughter, Ms Nyoni said it was not easy to run the expansive family business when her parents are away.
Ms Nyoni said she is always constantly in touch with her parents on how to run the business profitably when they are away.
"I never thought I would be working at our home; I am a finance and accounting graduate so I thought I would be employed in big corporations in the city.
But I find myself managing the family business which is not an easy thing to do.
So, I keep learning the ropes but this has been a good opportunity.
"When mum is not around, we constantly talk on the phone as I have to make sure that everything is run successfully," said Ms Nyoni.
Source - The Chronicle
