Housing Deficit and Energy Challenges in Zimbabwe: Rinos Mautsa Shares his Vision for Inclusive Growth

Interview with Rinos Mautsa, CEO of Picco Construction and Director of Energy Plus Group

What is the scope of your businesses?

I founded the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe (CCAZ) when I was very young, I was in my early 20s. It is the largest association in the country. We promote investment into BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) and contact centers. There were no BPO associations in Zimbabwe when we started but right now we have over 30,000 people working in the BPO space. I saw that people were working in contact centers who did not have customer experience or customer service qualifications and that is when I set up the Chartered Institute of Customer Management (CICM). That is giving diplomas in customer service and other supporting services in consulting and research. After that I set up Tech24 Group that provides our own software solutions for contact centers. Over 80% of contact centers now use our software. We were the first ones to push that in Zimbabwe and we are doing outsourcing as well. We are answering calls from South Africa in Zimbabwe, and we were the first ones to do that. My passion has always been in energy and construction so that is when I ended up setting up our construction company, Picco Construction. We have done quite a number of projects in housing, and we are also contributing in a very big way in terms of housing that we are putting in the market. We are now also into infrastructure development and roads, and we are also building our own resort. We are also into energy through Energy Plus Group, and I have a partner. We mainly focus on wholeselling. We bring in in bulk and sell to resellers, so we do not do retail. We want to change our focus to construction because being big in construction is part of our vision for next year. We want to establish our own hardware shops. Why? Because per month, we buy over US$100,000 of hardware materials so we are giving them to other hardware shops. If we establish our own chain of hardware shops across Zimbabwe, we can buy from them. It is another entity we will be opening next year to complement our businesses. That is where I see myself as an established businessperson. We also do clean energy, but our main core business is LPG and we are really moving volumes.

What is the major advantage of Picco Construction?

Our major competitive advantage is our current team. They are a young, driven team and that gives us huge leverage. Also, our projects. There is a huge housing need in Zimbabwe and we have been pushing on that to complement government efforts. I remember during COVID, when the Indian government came to Zimbabwe looking for opportunities we were so privileged to be chosen to partner with the leading Indian company. Why they chose us is because they wanted to invest in housing on a big scale and they were recommended to work with us. Infrastructure development, the roads and stuff, that is not our forte, we are still building our capabilities. But in terms of housing, we have really mastered the game. We know the numbers; we know how to leverage them on the gaps that are there in the market and to collaborate with different stakeholders for us to deliver.

What is your opinion of Zimbabwe’s economy?

If I am to be frank, the economy is not that favorable. There are a lot of gaps and there are a lot of areas that need to be improved. Speaking from a business point of view, planning is difficult because of policy changes and the currency’s instability. It makes planning and getting investments difficult. Most of the investors would say, “what after investing then the value of my money is eroded, then I will fail to recoup the initial investment.” And if you are to check the confidence level in the economy it is negative due to publicity from different quarters. The way the media is painting this nation is completely different because most of the things you hear are not true. Yes, we have a lot of things that need to be worked on, but the media did not do justice for Zimbabwe. Maybe there are a lot of things those in government need to work on so that at least we can put ourselves in a positive light. Having said that it now becomes a major challenge, especially if you are trying to position yourself to get some investments. In terms of opportunities, for us as entrepreneurs we hunt for opportunities, and we want to maximize our investments. We are also impacting stakeholders, including locals. The housing deficit is running in the millions so imagine the impact you can make if you are just targeting maybe 10% of that. It would be a huge impact. Low-cost housing will maybe become a huge thing. We do not have much high-rise building accommodation. The housing market in Zimbabwe is the most expensive globally. In South Africa it is very affordable. I can buy in an upmarket place for the same price. The opportunities are there, but we need to balance them.

What projects are you currently working on?

We have a lot of projects that we are working on. We have an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for the second leg of a project for 10,000 houses which is huge. If you look at the scale in our country that is huge because we do not have something of that scale going on, but unfortunately like what I was saying, other companies are focusing on the high-end by bringing something like Dubai to Zimbabwe, so we need to bridge the gap. Not everyone can afford a house for US$400,000-US$500,000 and it is the same people who are buying up these properties. So, what are we doing as developers to cater for people who are at the bottom of the pyramid? That is where I am coming from. We have done some expensive projects but as we get into the new year, our focus and thrust is going to be on those at the bottom of the pyramid so that we can provide something that they can afford. Nobody is really catering for that market. Everybody is making a killing by catering for the rich. The project we are doing now is not low-cost but at least it is better than the other projects we have been working on which have been selling for between $300,000-$400,000. With this one you can buy a property for less than US$100,000. For us at least we are catering for the middle class and those just below middle class. My goal is for us to go as low as we can and maybe sell a property or house for less than US$20,000. These are the solutions that we are focusing on.

Are your projects in Harare or elsewhere?

Most of our projects are in Harare and they are available for a tour if people want to. The land for the next project that we are launching where we have already put up the gatehouse is catering for people at the bottom of the pyramid, and it is also in Harare. But we are not just focusing on Harare, we are also going to the outskirts of the city. The price of land in Harare is a bit exorbitant which is why we are also focusing on land outside of it so that we do not leave anyone behind, and we cater for everyone.

Could you tell us more about your resort project.

It is called Alps Resort, and we will be launching it early in Quarter 2 of next year. We are almost done with it, but our focus now is on landscaping to ensure that the aesthetics there are good. We decided to do that because we are already in construction. We have the equipment, the manpower, the people and it will help our cashflows given that in Zimbabwe it is so difficult to raise cash. If you have a huge asset base it is easier for you to attract investments. So that is the whole idea of why we are venturing into that. It is not just one project though, there is another one in Kariba. We have already secured land and we will be starting that project neat year for another hotel. The first hotel is on top of a mountain so that is why we named it Alps Resort and both will be part of the Leisure Plus brand. These first two projects will be 4-star resorts because we will be targeting the high-end.

What about Energy Plus Group?

Our core business is Energy Plus Group, an energy company that sells LPG. That is how we started. We have the competencies and resources, and we are good at it. But if you look now at Africa, and especially sub-Saharan Africa, countries are all struggling and battling with power cuts and that is why our focus is changing to solar. It complements governments in terms of the provision of alternative energy. These power cuts are going to go on and on if you study the dynamics of southern Africa. You can see in Malawi they are battling with it, and it is the same story in Zambia. There are now some improvements, but I do not think they are sustainable, and I think in the not-too-distant future they will go back to the same challenges. The solutions being provided to increase capacity through hydro-electric power generation are not going to mesh with an increase in industry capacity so definitely the challenges are going to ensue in the coming years. That is why we are getting into clean energy. Even for our resorts we are using clean energy. Yes, we will have to pick up for the grid but using clean energy makes sense. That is the way the world is going.

Do you have partners for all the businesses that you are running and are you interested in getting investors?

If you are in a market that is being tainted and painted in a negative way it is difficult to attract international investment but what we have done locally is build our capabilities internally using our own funds. If you look at our balance sheet in terms of the assets we have accumulated, and our cash flows, we have built capabilities to be able to attract funding from banks and that is what we have done. We understood that to just look for institutional investors from outside the country is so difficult. And we have registered all the companies that we have in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. We have done that as a way to try to safeguard our investors. We understand that our projects will increase in scope and scale so we will need additional investors from outside Zimbabwe. If you are building 100 houses you definitely will need some sort of international investment so that is why we have opened operations outside Zimbabwe.

What is your vision for the medium-term?

We have already started rolling out to ensure that we bridge the gap, especially in the housing deficit and for people at the bottom of the pyramid. And I keep repeating that because this is something that is after my heart. It is so painful to see people working so hard, but they cannot afford the products that are there in the market. There is an opportunity to make money without exploiting people but at the same time, you will be filling a gap that exists. So, for us in the next three years, our focus areas will be to cater for the people at the bottom of the pyramid to provide low-cost housing solutions. That is going to be our mandate. At the same time, governments do not have the capacity right now to do mass housing projects to cater for those people. So, as a private player, we can come in not to exploit, or to make a killing or look at making 200% or 300% profits, but we can make meaningful profits. If I am to get some partners who are willing to be a part of the targeted market in low-cost housing in different countries, we are willing to explore that.

What is the inspiration that drives you?

I am a self-driven person. I am not self-made; I am a product of different people. There are a lot of people who saw the potential in me, and they gave me an opportunity to unleash my potential in the market. Not so many people in Africa get that platform and potential. I was raised by a single mother in a rural area, and she wanted her kids to be the best in different fields. I am happy that all my siblings have done so well, myself included. We also saw the challenges that she had been going through. So, that alone drives me to say yes, I might not change everyone in Africa to be better, but at least if I am to change one person that is enough for that person to also change another person. So, for me when I am waking up every day, I want to make a meaningful impact, especially in the areas that I have chosen. In terms of energy to alleviate energy poverty, to the constitution that I would choose to change. So, the energy poverty we have to do away with it. Yes, we cannot change everyone but if there are more constituents that we can change, if I have a part in that, that is good. In terms of providing a roof for the people who are at the bottom of the pyramid, I want to change that and make an impact on that and inspire the young people as I know there are a lot of young people who follow me on social media. They are inspired and want to be like me. I want to show them that it is possible to come from the bottom of the pyramid, to come from the rural areas and being raised by a single mother is not a death sentence. You can be raised by a single mother without formally being employed and still make an impact, not only in your country but on a global stage. So, this drives me to be better every day. This drives me to work hard even if I am facing some challenges. In business it is not always smooth. You face challenges here and there but what keeps me going is the fact that I know there are a lot of people who are watching, and they are inspired by what I am doing. And because of what I am doing, they are going to be better than me as well.

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