Noble Gold Eco-Inclusive

Mr Kudakwashe Mawere is the Executive Director- the driver/ founder behind Noble Gold. He holds a B Com Accounting degree. A highly focused and results orientated individual offering strong business leadership and the ability to contribute both strategically and tactically for the organizational developmental projections. He is responsible for sourcing business funding and overall administration and strategic planning for the successful implementation of the organisational developmental plans and strategies.  

Career experience: - Over 20years of continuous career progression in financial management roles gaining steady promotions through organizational hierarchies.

Trainings: - 1. Completed training on entrepreneurship courses- International Labour Organization’s (ILO)- Zimbabwe Green enterprise. 2. Completed Seed Africa Business Catalyser Support program delivered under the framework of UN Environment program (UNEP), UNDP, IUCN.

Affiliates: - 1. Board member of Farmers Economic Growth Trust (FEGT) Zimbabwe.

2. A member of Small to Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe (SMEAZ). 

This innovation fights the problem of poverty and hunger through contributing to the transformation of rural agriculture by fully supporting the local farmers through the capacitating of the drive to expand their farming operations by provision of inputs with a greater emphasis on promotion of decent youth and women employment. Zimbabwe with a country-wide economic recession persisting and the UN predicting a “hunger pandemic” in the wake of drought (UN 2020) coupled with Covid 19 pandemic, supporting small scale farmers is the only way to strengthen the country’s food security (USAID 2020).The business model is driven by an aspiration to provide prosperity and maximum benefit along the value chain from the primary raw materials suppliers (famers), employees, stakeholders, and eventually consumers thereby making a lasting positive impact to the society at the same time doing business as a social impact enterprise making the country less dependent on food imports.

This business innovation fights the problem of poverty and hunger. In Zimbabwe extreme poverty is disproportionately concentrated in rural areas where most people 67% (World Bank 2020) rely on agriculture for sustenance and incomes. Decades of economic recession have led to a number of urban industries closing (70%). The few that have remained operational (30%- World Bank 2020) cannot sufficiently adsorb the general populace into decent wage earning employment. This economic recession have led to those that have lost formal jobs venture into small scale farming. However this have remained highly underfunded as banks are hesitant to give out loans due to lack of collateral hence the ventures have not been successful. With this scenario, the yield is continuously decreasing from one farming season to another thereby rendering the farmer becoming poorer and vulnerable to hunger.If communal farmers are not adequately supported, they may not achieve viable income levels, as a result, rural-urban migration will remain continuously increasing thereby increasing pressure on urban resources. Smallholder farmers have been long exploited by the middlemen who buy their produce at a very cheap price then sell at a greater higher price thereby not giving the farmer enough revenue return on investment.

This business model was developed so as to break the cycle of intergenerational hunger and poverty among rural smallholder farmers who have remained poor despite being in farming for decades. The enterprise is a social impact enterprise supporting local farmers to capacitate their farming businesses as well as providing profitable market for their produce for increased income, creating jobs for youth and women and delivering world class locally produced healthy products to the consumers.

As an agribusiness enterprise, Noble Gold has set this as a priority area for investment to play its part in ending poverty, hunger and malnutrition in the country. Furthermore, investments in local food production pays many times over – by stabilizing farm incomes, improving health and nutrition, and making the country less dependent on food imports. As Noble Gold, with this Total Farmer Eco- Inclusive Partnership, the vision is to buy banana, maize and other crops from the supported smallholder farmers and processes these into “super cereals” with added nutrients. Through this investment drive, Noble Gold projects that its enhanced cereals will reach 2 million children in the country, in addition to providing a stable income to smallholder farmers, mostly youth and women.

The main beneficiaries of this innovation project are the rural communal farmers who face challenges in accessing funding opportunities to enable them to realize their full potential and grow their farming businesses and integrate them into the mainstream economy. Noble Gold is driven by an aspiration to provide prosperity and maximum benefit along the value chain from the primary raw materials suppliers (famers), employees, stakeholders, and eventually consumers thereby making a positive impact to the society at the same time doing business. The enterprise is a social impact enterprise supporting local farmers to capacitate their farming businesses as well as providing profitable market for their produce for increased income, creating jobs for youth and women and delivering world class locally produced healthy products to the consumers.

The model therefore addresses gender disparities as women are vital contributors to farm work. Addressing this gap helps household women become more productive and increase incomes within poor families.Through our business proposal, rural small scale farmers are assisted to access the much needed agricultural inputs and certified planting materials that helps boost their farming activities.  The aim of this model is to expand and diversify the farmer’s revenue streams.

Smallholder farmers have suffered due to the deteriorated business environment and are unable to access finance and business development services, severely affecting their growth and sustainability. This has resulted in agricultural sector being underfunded, as banks are hesitant to give out loans to rural small scale farmers as they have no collateral to offer against the loans resulting in smallholder farmers being left behind from participating in the active economic activities. Without full support to the smallholder farmers, their yield is continuously decreasing from one farming season to another thereby rendering them to becoming poorer and vulnerable to hunger.

Having a greater passion to contribute towards the attainment of the first two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) ie; the eradication of hunger and poverty- particularly in rural areas through development of a sustainable model, we carried out a research survey consulting local rural farmers to identify challenges hindering their sustainable farming. We believe that communities should be at the forefront of identifying their problems and building effective solutions. We also believe that strong, prosperous, and inclusive communities are built upon engaged and connected citizens who actively participate in shaping their social and economic future. The survey noticed great potential within the rural communities the only drawback being lack of adequate support to fully capacitate their farming activities. As Noble Gold, we then offered an eco- inclusive partnership support to the farmers. This was a welcome development within the rural community which then saw the birth of this innovation model so as to develop self-reliant and sustainable rural farming businesses fighting poverty and hunger.

The company therefore offers tailor-made complete solutions specifically designed around its small-scale farmer suppliers’ needs. Noble Gold can therefore be considered a closely forward integrated company in that its local communities are part of its innovation. 

Decades of economic recession in Zimbabwe have led to a major shift from waged employment to informal economic activities. Therefore Noble Gold being a social impact enterprise, is strongly motivated by supporting local farmers to capacitate their farming businesses as well as providing profitable market for their produce for increased income, creating jobs for youth and women and delivering world class locally produced healthy products to the consumers thereby bringing a lasting positive impact to rural communities. This business model has brought in an improved coordination within the supply value chain of rural farmers, which supports sustainable food production, reduced post-harvest losses and facilitating market access in favour of the farmer. When farmers grow more food and earn more income, they are better able to feed their families, send their children to school, provide for their families’ health and reinvest in their farms for more improved production.

To date 65 communal small scale farmers are benefiting from the scheme. The model also addresses gender disparities as women are vital contributors to farm work. Addressing this gap helps households women become more productive and increase incomes within poor families. 

The company is founder-managed through consultancy engagements from specific area professional experts like Food microbiologists, Food analysis scientists, Dieticians, Agronomists and Industrial engineers. Mr Kudakwashe Mawere is an experienced, knowledgeable and competent professional motivated by a higher desire for increased performance and productivity hunched on greater cost efficiency demonstrated thorough high levels of financial acuity and advanced analytical useful planning skills that are a valuable organizational asset. A highly focused and results orientated individual offering strong business leadership and the ability to contribute both strategically and tactically for the organizational developmental projections. He is responsible for sourcing business funding and overall administration and strategic planning for the successful implementation of the organisational developmental plans and strategies.

Trainings: - 1. Completed training on entrepreneurship courses delivered in the framework of International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Green enterprise development program in Zimbabwe on (a) Business plan development, Presentation skills and Pitching. (b) Improve your business- Greening business systems, Marketing, Record keeping, Costing and Productivity.  2. Completed Seed Africa Business Catalyser Support program delivered under the framework of UN Environment program (UNEP). 3. Trained on Bio-Liquid fertilizer production at Zimbabwe Sunshine Group (ZSG).

Affiliates and membership: - 1. Board member of Farmers Economic Growth Trust (FEGT). The organization champions the commercialization of production systems in the various farming industry sectors of Zimbabwe. 2. A member of Small to Medium Enterprises Association of Zimbabwe (SMEAZ).

Research: - Research survey on Improving lives and livelihoods of youths and women in Zimbabwe through Farming.

Following the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, Zimbabwe has been on a lockdown since March 30 resulting in the breakdown of many supply chains and the number of vulnerable people have increased. Noble Gold can help bridge this gap though its farmer support scheme model and in doing so make a lasting contribution to the country’s food and health security thereby reducing poverty and hunger levels in the country. This is a great opportunity to the enterprise as more vulnerable farmers require supporting thereby broadening our farmer support base. Supporting farmers by capacitating their farming through provision of inputs and then after harvest the farmers sell their produce to Noble Gold factory as raw materials, is what separates us from others as the business model offers a rare opportunity for strategic investments to be made in a rural community focusing on promoting among others, communal farmers’ survival and development. To meet the fertilizer requirements for these crops, Noble Gold manufactures an organic Eco- liquid fertilizer that it supplies to the supported farmers thereby making this business model an inclusive support scheme and the enterprise also secures a stable supply of raw materials for the factory value addition.

Selected farmers are trained on growing all the crops covered in the factory raw materials spectrum. Training these beneficiaries has a ripple effect to their communities as they act as change agents who influence and inspire their peers. This arrangement reduces crop loss after harvesting as the company provides a ready market for the produce.  The operations create employment and this increases household incomes eventually leading to poverty eradication. The company’s effort of supporting farmers to produce raw materials, processing and marketing the products have an overall positive contribution towards food security in the country.

We train farmers on conservation agriculture- a no-till system that increases yield while protecting fields from erosion. This cuts down on waste of inputs and improve production, averaging around two tonnes per hectare for maize, which is nearly triple what farmers used to produce under conventional agriculture. This is built on three principles – minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation. Farmers hand-dig individual holes – 15x15x15 cm basins – to plant their seeds into. Farmers gather the stalks and leaves left in the field after harvest to use as mulch, which protects the soil from erosion and holds in moisture. 

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Supporting farmers by capacitating their farming through provision of inputs and then after harvest the farmers sell their produce to Noble Gold factory as raw materials, is what separates us from others as the business model offers a rare opportunity for strategic investments to be made in a rural community focusing on promoting among others, communal farmers’ survival and development. Other organizations in the same line of business for example Sunspane, do not go an extra mile like supporting the farmers with inputs. As a result, they do not get good quality bananas and they do not contribute to the social welfare of the local community. They only focus on revenue without a play on social responsibility. With this model, Noble Gold provides local farmers with great opportunities to grow their businesses and capacitate them to care for their families. The enterprise offers inputs as well as advice on ecological issues and manufactures liquid fertilizer that it encourages farmers to use as organic fertilizer.

The project helps to eliminate post-harvest losses as the factory provides a ready direct market for the produce thereby securing a stable factory supply of raw materials. Noble Gold positively improves the livelihood of the local farmers as they receive better prices for their harvests. We champion the idea of rural industrialisation hence strongly advocates for rural businesses engaging in innovative value addition, and not just concentrate on selling unprocessed raw products. 

Selected farmers are trained on growing all the crops covered in the factory raw materials spectrum and these act as change agents who influence and inspire their peers. The operations create employment and this increases household incomes eventually leading to poverty eradication. The company’s effort of supporting farmers to produce raw materials, processing and marketing the products have an overall positive contribution towards food security in the country.

The current enterprise staff complement is 5 and supporting 65 farmers rural small scale farming households. By July 2021 the company projects to have created 20 direct jobs and supporting over 200 small scale farmers. Here the factory comes in as the ever-ready market for the farmer produce thereby becoming the strongest link between the farmer and the consumer. This relationship is of mutual benefit to both sides as the farmers, sale their produce at better prices and the factory also gets a constant and stable supply of the required raw materials. Through our business proposal, rural small scale farmers are assisted to access the much needed agricultural inputs and certified planting materials that helps boost their farming activities.  The aim of this model is to expand and diversify the farmer’s revenue streams.

The company’s vision of setting up a green food processing factory right in the middle of a rural community of Gutu and Honde Valley is critical in creating local full and productive decent employment thereby curbing rural-urban migration. The factory production facility largely employs local female workforce. Being a rural based manufacturing factory, the company aims at becoming the leading major rural employer of smallholder farmers and the rural community. It is against this back drop that the business innovation model provides a factory that manufactures value added products. The enterprise has established a drying plant in Honde Valley resulting in increased revenue to the farmer as they sell their produce locally without travelling long distances to Harare and other cities. By this, the enterprise also secures a constant and reliable supply of raw materials on site.

Collectively under the whole business model, currently there are a total of 65 farmers that benefits from this scheme. The primary objective of this innovation is to fight poverty and hunger in rural areas. This is achieved by contributing to the transformation of rural agriculture by fully supporting the local farmers through the capacitating of the drive to expand their farming operations through provision of inputs with a greater emphasis on promotion of decent youth and women employment. Under the scheme, the company provides agricultural inputs and equipment to rural small scale farmers who then after harvest, sale their produce to Noble Gold factory as raw material inputs. In one year’s time, we look forward to increase the number of people benefiting to 100. In five years when the project becomes fully operationally capacitated, over 500 rural farmer households will benefit from the project. To effectively run this project and get best crop quality, Noble Gold provides all the farming inputs which include certified seed, and organic fertilizers. Through this business innovation proposal, the rural farmers are assisted to access the much needed agricultural inputs and certified planting materials which they are currently having some challenges in acquiring as a result that helps to boost their farming activities. As Noble Gold, we have a competitive advantage in that we get our raw materials right from the small scale farmers that we are assisting to produce through our farmer out grower scheme.

1.1.1 Poverty and Hunger eradication

This is achieved by contributing to the transformation of rural agriculture through provision of inputs and equipment.

1.1.2 Women and Youth empowerment

The model addresses gender disparities as in Sub-Saharan Africa, women and youth are vital contributors to farm work, but because they have less access to improved certified planting seed, better techniques, technologies and markets, yields on their plots are typically 30 to 40 percent lower than their level of potential.

1.1.3 Climate change mitigation and Food security

All the small grain crops covered under the scheme are drought-resistant crops this therefore strengthens resilience and adaptability to climate change in rural farming. The company’s effort of supporting farmers to produce raw materials, processing and marketing the products have an overall positive contribution towards food security in the country.

1.1.4 Environmental up-keep

Water pollution is addressed through farmer encouragement to use our Bio-Liquid organic fertilizers and physically do hoe grass weeding other than using herbicides avoiding harmful substances entering clean water bodies thereby saving aquatic life.

1.1.5 Rural Infrastructure development

The enterprise, looks forward to expanding the plantations of the local rural farmers as well as constructing two 500000 litre irrigation water reservoirs and field in-land road in Honde valley.

1.1.6 Agric input support for improved output

Supporting the farmers has helped them in adopting sustainable green agricultural practices that can enable them to realize their full potential and grow their farming businesses and integrate them into the mainstream economy through an inclusive partnership.

Decades of economic recession in Zimbabwe have led to a major current liquidity crisis and its impact to the economy resulting in major shift from waged employment to informal economic activities. However these informal ventures have remained highly underfunded as banks are hesitant to give out loans due to lack of collateral hence the ventures have not been successful.  This has resulted in shortage of low priced funding to finance Operational equipment and Working capital.

Zimbabwe is struggling with a negative current account balance which continues to worsen the prevailing liquidity crunch. This has resulted in shortage of low priced inputs- most rural small-scale farmers work without modern green certified input seeds, conservative technology, and inadequate financial and extension services thereby adversely affecting their productivity levels. Slow economic recovery from this economic crunch still has an adverse bearing in the development of the economy and the population at large due to depressed expenditure levels. Suppliers of inputs are reluctant to offer lucrative credit and payment terms, demanding cash up front from the farmers.

High utility costs and frequent load shedding –Unrealistic electricity billing costs and frequent power cuts have interrupted production and added to the costs. Due to these frequent electricity power cuts, there is too much idle time which is negatively impacting on the organizational operations. However the capacity is still very low hence delaying the expansion drive. 

As Noble Gold after realising how difficult it is for the rural communal farmers to access funding opportunities and green entrepreneurial skills, the company noticed a need for supporting these farmers in adopting sustainable green agricultural practices that can enable them to realize their full potential and grow their farming businesses and integrate them into the mainstream economy through an inclusive partnership. This business model, seeks to solve inter-connected developmental problems like damage to the environment, high levels of youth unemployment, low formal growth entrepreneurship and unsustainable SMEs growth in Zimbabwe.

Under this business model, Noble Gold comes up with some tailor made packages that assist the farmers by proving them with all their necessary green agricultural inputs, equipment and operational support services. This in turn gives a higher output and effective coordination along the proposed value chain as a result more crop harvest would be brought to the factory as inclusive market for the farm produce from the supported farmers. This relationship is of mutual benefit to both sides as the farmers, sale their produce at better prices and the factory also gets a constant and stable supply of the required raw materials. To counter the frequent electricity power cuts, the factory has moved all its machines that require less electric power off the national grid to solar energy. All the heating energy required in the factory is being developed so that it’s derived from the saw dust that is produced as waste from timber processing organisations and biogas.

The enterprise is supported through its partnership with various stakeholders ranging from national and international organisations, research, social and environmental enterprises.

Panga banana organization- is a group of banana farmers with whom Noble Gold has a working partnership agreement.

Batanai farmer group- is a group of local communal small grain farmers that receive inputs from Noble Gold. After harvest they sell their produce to Noble Gold.

Zimbabwe Women Farmers Association Trust (ZIWFAT)- this is a trust that looks after the welfare of  women farmers in Zimbabwe with a greater objective of capacitating in the transformative value of women's participation in farming. The trust has a database of over 7500 women farmers across the ten provinces in Zimbabwe. Noble Gold takes advantage of the database so as to effectively coordinate its operational partnership model with the trust through the supply of farming inputs for the nationwide production of sugar beans and paprika.

Impact Africa Trust (IAT) – an international NGO assisting us with the technical support for professional and sustainable implementation of the green innovation project. IAT bridges the funding and technical skills gap in our agri- business project.

This eco- inclusive farmer partnership project is not targeting any particular region but has to spread country wide, regionally and internationally and looks forward to greatly increasing the number of farmers that are self-sufficiently capable through benefiting from the farmer support scheme.

In order to ensure lasting impact on the target communities, the operating expenses and investments is covered by the revenue streams that are generated from the enterprise operational sales revenue.

Noble Gold starts by supplying crop planting seeds and equipment to the local famers for them to start their agricultural production. The enterprise currently mainly supports the farmers with banana tissue culture plants, sugar beans and ground nuts as seed. To meet the fertilizer requirements for these crops, Noble Gold manufactures an organic Eco- liquid fertilizer that it supplies to the supported farmers thereby making this business model an inclusive support scheme. Then after harvest, farmers sell their produce to Noble Gold factory as raw material inputs. This improves the livelihood of the local farmers as they receive better prices for their harvests and the enterprise also secures a stable supply of raw materials for value addition. Through this business model, rural agricultural is being supported to improve and provide decent livelihoods to rural communities. This has transformed rural farming and has managed to improve production by over 30% resulting in communal farming communities becoming sustainably self-reliant farming trajectory through expansion and diversification of revenue streams. Part of the farm produce is sold as raw products (like banana fruits and sugar beans) and the other part is transformed into other value added products like banana flour, porridges, fruit juice drink, sanitary pads made from banana stem fibre and liquid fertilizer. This business model provides a financial sustainability to the enterprise.

The company’s main objective is to create value for customers as that helps sell satisfactory products and services, while creating value for shareholders, in the form of increased business production that insures the future availability of products so as to fund operations at a profit. We are increasingly pushing for better management goals which tend to place cost-cutting measures that produce short-term results ahead of investments that enhance long-term competitiveness and growth. Putting value creation in the right way, managers will know where and how to grow; this has helped us to deploy capital better than our competitors enhancing the company's ability to achieve profitable and long-lasting growth.

Our annual revenue projection is $30000.00 giving an average monthly projection of $2500.00. Out of that revenue 30% covers for operational expenses and 40% goes to the procurement of raw materials leaving 30% as the profit margin. Within a period of two years, we look forward to increasing our production level by 150% as well as trebling our market share. Due to low value per unit and low margins, this business thrives on producing and selling good quality products in high volumes rather than high mark ups.

The company’s main objective is to create value for customers as that helps sell satisfactory products and services, while creating value for shareholders, in the form of increased business production that insures the future availability of products so as to fund operations at a profit. 

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For Small to Medium Enterprises to fully grow, they need to be economically empowered through facilitating their participation in the mainstream economy. It is against this background that Noble Gold is looking for funding for the purpose of financing working capital, to supply orders and also purchase the necessary operational equipment so as to competitively carry out the business operations as well as to capacitate the expansion drive of the business. The primary intention for the facility is to raise funds to capacitate the business and also help to expand the plantations of the local rural farmers who are the main suppliers of the required input raw materials as well as constructing two 500000 litre irrigation water reservoirs in Honde Valley and purchase of value addition machinery which includes ripening machine, fruit slicing, blending machine, packaging material, fibre extracting machines, cold room, milling machines and fruit drying machines as well as construction of the factory infrastructure.

Within a period of two years, we look forward to increasing our production level by 150% as well as trebling our market share. Due to low value per unit and low margins, this business thrives on producing and selling good quality products in high volumes rather than high mark ups.

To reach this milestone, funding is the limiting factor to the development derives. To sustainably achieve this, we are looking for a funding amounting to USD100 000.00. This can be tailored as a debt, equity or high breed funding depending on the financer’s preference.

NOBLE GOLD- BUSINESS PLAN BUDGET PROJECTION

Estimated expenses

MONTH 1 -  MONTH 12 (YEAR)

Raw Materials                                                           40,195.00

Staff Overheads- Salaries                                      14,208.00

Motor Vehicle Expenses

Fuel Purchase (75 litres per month @ 1.40)       1,260.00

Repairs and Maintenance ($150/ Quarter)         600.00

Licensing & Others ($30/ twice a year)                60.00

Operational Overheads

Stationery & Computer expenses                         120.00

Courier & Postage                                                   60.00

Utility bills (Electricity, City Council                      1,800.00

Telephone/ Internet                                                 600.00

Rent                                                                           2,400.00

Supporting farmers inputs                                     5,000.00

Dietician- products recipe configuration             150.00

Bank Charges                                                          1,239.98

Capital Expenditure

Equipment                                                                6,555.00

Finalists in this challenge will be invited to pitch their solutions therefore attending that platform will create a conducive platform to engage with other thought-provoking entrepreneurs through innovative session formats that provide ample opportunity for discussions about inequities facing other entrepreneurs globally. This will expand our understanding about solutions to, innovations for, and research on inequities affecting people through sessions, workshops, big idea talks, innovation labs and more facilities that the platform will provide. We will gain a lot as there is greater need for research in developing countries to advance knowledge and solve practical development problems that seeks to enhance the employment and economic opportunities of vulnerable groups particularly women and youth and foster a more inclusive economy participation.

Selected Solver teams will join a supportive community of peers, funders, and experts to help advance their work; receive mentorship and strategic advice from the networks. Through these connections, we will build the partnerships needed to accelerate our work, validate our impact and business model, and scale our solution. All this experience and exposure is of great impact to the organization as it will significantly help us to scale up the solution in a much more professional way.

The primary impact of the business model is to fully support the local farmers by capacitating the drive to expand their farming operations as they become main suppliers in the supply chain for the required manufacturing raw materials for the factory under contract farming. This Total Farmer Eco- Inclusive Partnership model, the vision is to buy banana, maize and other crops from the supported smallholder farmers and processes these into “super cereals” with added nutrients. Through this investment drive, Noble Gold projects that its enhanced cereals will reach 2 million children in the country, in addition to providing a stable income to smallholder farmers, mostly youth and women. This improves the livelihood of the local farmers as they receive better prices for their harvests and the enterprise also secures a stable supply of raw materials for value addition.

The company looks forward to working out a collaborative framework with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other NGOs that advocates for the communities self-reliance, sustainability and supply of sanitary pads so that it supplies their entire sanitary pads provision projects. That framework assists in marketing the products and service at a very higher organizational platform.

The company also looks forward to working with provincial hospitals with regard to patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and infant pediatrics as a way to introduce into the market its milk shake, family porridge and soft baby porridge. The company will also engage marketing organizations like ‘Better Agriculture’ and ‘Zimtrade’– these are companies which provide technical and business consultancy along the entire agricultural value chain, as well as identifying suitable market linkages with proper buyers in Zimbabwe, African regions and abroad so as to stimulate export sales. As a move to plough back to the community, the company sponsors some schools competitions and pay portion of school fees as prizes. This helps to create a bond with products straight from schools to tertiary level and that bond remains alive even when these students grow to parenthood.