Zim girl set to be her ‘own boss’

My Own Boss, a TV show modelled around The Apprentice of the United Kingdom, seeks to identify young people with business acumen and provide them with an opportunity to set up their own business.
The show, which drew eight participants each from Zimbabwe and Zambia, has been running under the theme Battle of the Falls and the contestants have been battling it out to be the new business high-flyers of tomorrow.
And before the announcement of the winner of the prestigious show on Saturday, the two finalists — who are both female — have been tasked to organise a golf tournament at the Chapman Golf Club this Friday to raise at least US$25 ooo.
The golf tourney, aptly named Buy Zimbabwe Golf Tournament, is part of the competition to the top prize where the two are required to launch a “Buy Zimbabwe” campaign in the case of Gambiza and a similar campaign for Mwanza in  Zambia.
Munyaradzi Hwengwere, the show’s executive producer, said this is going to be the final task for the two before the winner is announced live on stage.
Hwengwere said the winner will be chosen on the basis of their having managed to come up with the best country package; would have raised the most money through the event and would have handled the golf tourney in the most professional manner.
The Buy Zimbabwe Golf Tournament is going to be an annual event where Gambiza will raise funds for the Buy Zimbabwe campaign.
As part of the Buy Zimbabwe campaign, Gambiza has created a three-pronged package as her target points for execution. She will be doing a quarterly research of consumer trends; develop a web portal for Zimbabwean products, brands and services as well as create a databank with close to a million consumers.
However, after fending off competition from 14 other contestants on the show, besides Mwanza, Gambiza has chosen to create a 24-hour national call centre as her business project to cater for both local and foreign businesspeople.
Gambiza’s project is premised on the realisation that not many companies, or even the banking system for that matter, have a 24-hour call centre to attend to customers at any given time.
TN Holdings, one of the sponsors of the reality show, chose the call centre project for its uniqueness and innovativeness.
Mwanza has chosen to go into the manufacturing of lime and talc because there is only a single player in Zambia and much of it is imported from regional countries such as Zimbabwe and South Africa. Talc is used in the paints and in the soap and detergents industry.
For those who have been following the show on TV, the winner will be decided and announced live on Channel 2 at an entertainment packed dinner at the Rainbow Towers this Saturday. The event will be re-broadcast on ZBC-TV on Monday. Entertainment will be provided by the Shaina star, Alexio Kawara and JK from Zambia.
The board of the show comprises renowned Zimbabwean businesspeople, Tawanda Nyambirai, who is the chief executive of TN Holdings, Grace Muradzikwa, the NicozDiamond boss, top Zambian businesspeople, Bwalya Chiti (chairperson) and Mable Mungomba.