BY FIDELITY MHLANGA
GOOD BOOK Investments, trading as Kumusha Power, is set to get a US$800 000 fresh capital injection to boast its operations.
Kumusha Power is a firm whose primary focus is to offer solar lighting in every off-grid rural household.
“Our hard work and dedication has resulted in commitment from a foreign impact investor ready to inject equipment/stock worth US$800 000 over the next three years. Accordingly, we have re-adjusted our efforts to finalise this tangible opportunity. We are in the process of securing access to a banking facility in ZWL that will enable Kumusha Power to grow, re-stock and start offering mini Solar Home Systems (SHS) on prepaid Pay As You Go ( PayGo) credit terms to all qualifying Zimbabweans in need of electricity and willing to change from expensive fossil fuels to affordable and renewable solar energy,” said Goodbook Investments COO Milan Vidovic.
Vidovic said the electricity situation was likely to get worse in the country unless rainfall dramatically improved.
“The whole country is facing an extremely challenging, almost hostile financial and investment environment as 2019 presented a huge challenge across the board, from agriculture, financial institutions, to manufacturing and mining. A vast majority of businesses have seen 50-90% drop/reduction in business,” he said.
He said Kumusha Power was enjoying the full support of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, adding that work was in progress with the central bank to resolve a few outstanding issues before moving ahead to alleviate power issues in Zimbabwe.
“Our strategy for 2020 is to continue rebuilding confidence with foreign and local investors and to try to create a model that could be replicated elsewhere, in spite of the state of our economy and financial sector. As you may be aware, FinSec’s Growth Enterprises Market platform was launched in December 2019, and that opens numerous opportunities for Kumusha Power as well as other potential candidates for initial public offer (IPO),” said Vidovic.
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Kumusha Power, which could not list on the Financial Securities Exchange ((Finsec) platform last October after failing to raise capital in what would have been the first energy (IPO), said the delay was to do lack of confidence and liquidity constraints within the investment community.
“Our decision to delay the Kumusha Power IPO was mainly to do with lack of confidence and liquidity within the local investment community in combination with very a difficult fiscal year for all Zimbabweans, on an individual and corporate level,” he said.
Kumusha has worked with globally recognised brands such as Toshiba, Kramer and TOA, supplying, selling and supporting appliances including solar systems through large retail chains and sophisticated credit and payroll lending organisations.
“Our projections indicate that in five years’ time, Kumusha Power customers will be annually saving over 11,5 million litres of paraffin/kerosene, generate over 7GWh of electricity per year, create over 840 000 tonnes in carbon credits and create 2 000-3 000 jobs,” said Vidovic.
