Also from the Zimbabwe Mail:

President Emmerson Mnangagwa says his country is open for business and that all foreign investment is safe, with investors able to repatriate profits.
Mnangagwa was speaking at a meeting with business leaders on Thursday ahead of his maiden trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos next week. He is under pressure from civic society, investors and opposition parties to implement political and economic reforms.
“I am aware that most of our business require injection of new capital from foreign investors and I want to reiterate that all investments will be safe and secure in Zimbabwe. Foreign investors will be able to repatriate profits from their all investments in our country and all Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection agreements (BIPPA) will be honoured,” he said.
“Come and invest in our country.We are open for business.(For) those who want to do business, Zimbabwe is one destination you can do business comfortably. That is the message that we are taking to Davos.”

Africa's Cheetah generation

From ThomasPMBarrett's(Wikistrat) blog: 
he sites an article in the Economist (UK)

Nifty Economist story on what economist George Ayitteh likes to dub the "cheetah generation" of Africa's business community ...  
Article contrasts serial entrpreneurs (who start company after company in sequence over their lives) with parallel entrepreneurs (who start mini-conglomerates of companies and seek to grow them all synergistically over time). The Economist argues that this is really the way things are unfolding in successful African economies.

 he then adds:

Speaking from experience, I couldn't agree more.  Virtually every deal I'm currently structuring or pursuing in Africa involves these parallel entrepreneurs.  They all seem about 35 and they're all running this cluster of companies that involve them in all manner of adjacent opportunities and economies (most of these clusters extend over several African states).

he links to this TED video:

Botswana cellphones revitalize business

From the AFrican Executive.

In July 2005, approximately four-fifths of Botswana’s population did not have access to electricity. However, enterprising village entrepreneurs have utilised the opportunity created by the lack of electricity to fill the resultant niche in the market for the recharging of cell phone batteries. These entrepreneurs have overcome the problem by utilising the novel idea of offering to recharge mobile phone batteries for a small fee using their automobile batteries to do the charging.



Among the many groups that have benefited from mobile phones, women are perhaps the largest. Ms. Stadile Manthe who runs a small retail ‘tuck shop’ and phone service in the village of Mmopane, a short drive from the capital, Gaborone started her business in 1998 and slowly expanded her inventory. She thought that if she could start her own business, maybe she could “get something.” She certainly has got something and mobiles and their associated services have greatly assisted her in achieving this. ...Although the success of Ms Manthe cannot entirely be attributed to mobile cellular services that she provides, the mobile phone has enabled her to place orders for her tuck shop, increased her efficiency, and has provided her with regular additional income. The additional money that she now earns as a direct result of the advent of the mobile phone is by no means insignificant. It is has raised her capacity for saving and investment and helped her to become the proud owner of half a dozen rental cottages. ...

Here in Asia, even our farmers have cellphones (often the family has one and shares it around). You buy a fifty peso "load" (now they are selling ten peso "loads") and text. Usually there is a "sarisari" store (small variety store) that sells these loads. Of course, here our villages have had electricity since 1992.