One of Zimbabwe’s Brightest Entrepreneurial Lights Builds Bridges for Others to Follow

Bulawayo - In the face of Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic hardship Andrew Chikomba is busy building bridges of success and creating employment.

Above: Andrew captured testing one of the renewable portable powerstation. Pic By Chrispen Tabvura

Chikomba, who is now a proud award-winning entrepreneur, has become one of  Zimbabwe’s bright lights as witnessed by the way he has established his own community service project to alleviate suffering.

Andrew told ZDDT News that, whilst it is not every day that his heart skips a beat, on the day he received the news of his acceptance into the Mandela Washington Fellowship (MWF), his heart certainly did.

The Mandela Washington Fellowship opened Chikomba’s gateway into the world of success and, in turn, serving the community.

Recently his company ventured into providing solar lighting and solar powered water solutions, LED lighting and back-up power solutions through retail stores in Zimbabwe.

This has seen him partner with organisations such as SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, where they have engaged young people from various districts, empowering them in the entrepreneurial skills and assisting them to start their small businesses distributing renewable energy products such as solar lanterns and small home solar systems.

Above: Andrew showing off one of his recently acquired renewable lights. Pic By Chrispen Tabvura.

As founder and managing consultant of Gemwitts Enterprises, Andrew sees the fellowship as “a brilliant programme for uplifting young leaders, building their confidence, providing them with invaluable exposure, connecting young leaders, by so doing promoting and encouraging synergies.”

This is because the fellowship “boosts an ideology of pooling resources and ideas from these great leaders in order to find and implement solutions to better their communities and our continent”.

It was in expectation of this that Andrew said that he would arrive in the US with “an open mind ready to dispel preconceived notions and embrace new ideas”.

For the past decade, Andrew has managed to establish himself in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) arena and he says some of his highlights include his appointment as part of the pre-opening team for Royal Chundu Hotel in Zambia in 2009.

At the event he coordinated the implementation of ICT infrastructure and ICT support for the GNU Conference 2009 in Victoria Falls, being appointed as ICT project coordinator at Elephant Hills Hotel for the COMESA Summit held in the Victoria Falls in the same year and being part of the team that put Turnall on the map as the first Zimbabwean company to achieve the Integrated Operational Health and Safety 18001, ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 safety standards Accreditation.

During his six-week fellowship, Andrew was stationed at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas.

Upon his return, Andrew continued to lead his company into breaking new ground and improving its chances of survival while aspiring to serve communities by providing honest, clear-cut & practical solutions to problems using appropriate technology wherever possible.

According to Andrew, he seeks to continue his volunteer activities as a Rotarian and a board member for Harvest Family Village, which is a Non-Profit Organisation that provides “Family Forever Homes” for Orphans and Abandoned children where he volunteers his time in fundraising and organising functions.  

Based in Bulawayo, Andrew is happily married and blessed with a daughter who is now aged one year and six months.