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President Mnangagwa’s mantra that Zimbabwe is open for business and his rallying cry that the country must pursue more economics than politics has found yet more fertile ground.

Early this year, a group of young entrepreneurs decided to take up the word and sought to broaden the participation of youths in business.

Thus, EntreCon, short for Entrepreneurs Connected, was born with the motto — “Wealth creation beyond possibilities”.

It brought together Nyoniyezulu Nyoni, founder and CEO of EntreCon and Adonai Construction; Kudzai Nyaruwata, secretary and CEO of Daybreak Investments and Llyod Nyakuyaka who is also the CEO of DOTS and vice secretary in Entrecon, among others.

Each of the members brought to the portfolio their own various small ventures that they have made into the blossoming pool party.

Nyoni’s Adonai is into construction doing low-cost housing and other construction projects, while Nyaruwata sells foodstuff and Nyakuyaka’s DOTS represents a fashion line.

In between, there are interests in land development and greenhouse farming.

And so on — they are open for business.

Nyoni explains: “Entrecon is a vehicle for young people who want to pursue entrepreneurship and have a vision in life. What this programme entails is that entrepreneurs can join us and invest in any of the projects that we are doing and once they invest and the project is complete, they get their portion of profits depending on how much they would have poured in in the first place.”

Nyoni says the project started off as an idea — a hunch — that such a thing could work but upon further research, he saw that there had been similar ideas and set out to create something bigger and more unique.

The project also manages and expands existing programmes by small investors who may want expertise and financial cushion.

“A person can also bring their own project and we then look at the financials and we fund that project — anyone’s project. When we are funding that project we are doing that for equity whereby that person gives us shares and then we manage the project on that person’s behalf but they still retain ownership.”

Nyoni rejects suggestions that this could be “one of those” money spinning schemes.

“This is not pyramid scheme where people end up losing money. We are a fully registered institution in terms of the laws of the country. When you invest with us and in case of any losses because we have assets we will liquidate those assets to cover the losses of those people,” he said.

He said they followed tenets of corporate governance.

“We have a framework of corporate governance and work within certain rules and codes. We elect members that we work with and who can lead us and in all projects we find qualified people to lead us and tell us what to do and the people there should be.

“The management team actually comprises of six people and we make collective decisions on all areas.”

The group has opened chapters in Harare and Bulawayo.

It is set for growth.

“With the response that we have so far, we will be able to incorporate bigger corporates and more entrepreneurs to join the scheme.

“I want to assure all young people willing to join us — to pursue their dream in entrepreneurship — to join us. Their money will be safe with us because of our sound corporate governance system and if by any chance anyone feels that their money is being squandered or being misused they are entitled to voice and say, ‘I think the money is not being used in the manner that we agreed’ and we will remedy that.”

Nyaruwata adds: “Every member has a right to follow up on every project and this is crucial to build trust among partners.”