Her Story: An Entrepreneur’s Journey of Challenges, Perseverance, and Triumph

Mrs Marah Hativagone – Managing Director, Codchem & Past President, ZNCC

In pursuance of further studies, Mrs. Marah Hativagone had to quit her job after six years. The tax regime at that time drove her out of employment as the pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) was 56%. She sold her car which helped her raise start-up capital and she started selling quite a variety of consumer goods. Later on, she would supply government hospitals with bandages. As water was a challenge, she drilled a borehole at her home and started to grow nursing plants which she would supply in and around Harare. Thus, at one point in time, she would have four to five projects running including commuting the public to and from Chitungwiza.

As she put aside more time to run her small diversified portfolio of businesses, Mrs Marah Hativagone felt that she needed to invest in something sustainable and upon visiting the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for consultation, she developed an interest in manufacturing food ingredients. This was also motivated by the fact that her husband was a chemist. She carried out research in this area and committed funds to develop flavours in her lounge until she was big enough to supply big companies like Schweppes. As her business was growing and employing people, she needed to upgrade her skills in managing the people and the organization and thus, she went back to school to study in this respect.

Her major breakthrough was the US$200,000 finance facility for women-owned SMEs programme of the World Bank which she managed to put to good use. At this time, Mrs Marah Hativagone employed her husband full-time to be well-invested in the manufacturing of food ingredients. She mentioned that the major reason why most SMEs do not survive beyond year five is the difficulty in managing growth. She highlighted that it is important that an entrepreneur employs the right people for each job task and s/he could be better off bringing people who can mould or mentor you in your circle. She strongly urged women to be serious and unapologetic about what they seek to do and the key is always to maintain quality. Her business has grown to the magnitude that it currently employs 70 people and hundreds more downstream through production linkages and has operational branches in other Southern African countries like Zambia. The business has also diversified into the manufacturing of the packaging materials they use.

The outbreak of COVID-19 was disturbing for her business, but they managed to recover because of resilience. In her submissions, she stressed that access to finance is key and requested that the Ministry of Industry and Commerce should assist in this respect. Mrs. Marah Hativagone also served as the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce President, being the first female President after independence. She invited all willing women to approach her for advice. Indeed, this is just a highlight of Mrs Hativagone’s story and the journey continues as she seeks to unlock other opportunities and build her business which has been in operation for thirty-three years, to survive for at least fifty more years. The Director of Ceremonies, Ms. Tutsirai Jenje asked the participants what little things each one of them can do to change their lives. This was a moment of reflection for many after hearing Marah Hativagone’s story of perseverance and triumph.