Entrepreneurship Zone: 28 April 2023 :: Exhibiting purpose through sheer willpower coupled with enthusiasm: William Ponela

Fri Apr 28 03:57:28 CAT 2023

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Entrepreneurship Zone: 28 April 2023 :: Exhibiting purpose through sheer
willpower coupled with enthusiasm: William Ponela

*          

 <mailto:zitfmktg at zitf.co.zw> 

ZEAL is an intense pursuit of some outcome or activity, it is a fire that
energies the establishment of many entrepreneurial ventures. Social
entrepreneur William Ponela has proven that for one to be a successful
business owner they have to possess teeth-gritting insistence of conquering
the rocky road of entrepreneurship.

Motivated by the need to address the lack of power induced challenges he
faced during his formative years in the town of Chivi, Ponela founded his
venture Zonful Energy. These challenges include, shortage of water which
exposed the villagers to unprotected sources of drinking water and energy
for lighting as well as cooking.

 “We grew up in areas where we had to gather firewood, to cook and get
light. I also witnessed a number of accidental deaths and serious injuries
as a result of fire.  Every time I visited urban areas I could see that
people lived comfortably they had light,” told The Entrepreneurial Magazine.

“My grandma used to ask me what I wanted to do and I told her that am doing
engineering so that I can solve all of our problems. After I had graduated
the situation had not moved in the rural areas. I then constructed a water
pumping system made out of scrap material so that these people could avoid
travelling long distances to get their water.”

Zonful Energy is a profit social enterprise that is grounded on the Pay As
You Go business model. Thus this venture is a testament that it is possible
to make money while having a positive social and environmental impact.  The
solar systems consist of solar panels, batteries and a broad range of
appliances including lights, radios, televisions amongst other services.

The Pay As You Go is a game-changing credit system that removes the initial
financial barrier to solar energy access by allowing people have to pay a
very small deposit for their system.

“…Upon full payment of the system, they start enjoying energy for free. If
someone miss a payment the system automatically shuts off till the person
catches up with the instalment fortunately, people have been paying up and
owning up.

“We discovered that people do not have internet in the rural areas so, am
glad to tell you now that we introduced smart phones which are also on Pay
As You Go, they can pay as little as US$20,” Ponela said.

Zonful Energy’s line of operations are in harmony with the objective of
United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 which is aimed at ensuring
access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

For that reason, the energy venture’s ultimate goal is to leapfrog from
energy deficiency to a more economical route to universal access to power. 

He said: “Our industry is highly technical and for us to achieve the
universal access to energy which everyone is talking about in line with the
UNSDG access to energy won’t be a success until we also look into the issues
related to energy development.”

The solar energy sector is undergoing a massive technological
transformation that is set to shift the boundaries of conventional energy
supply chains. Ponela acknowledged that the industry is highly technical and
it requires skilled manpower. 

“I am glad to share that it is one of the areas that Zonful Energy has
focused on and we have trained quite a number of people.

“I am proud because most companies have got a person who has been formally
been employed or trained by ZONFUL Energy,” he added.

In a bid to help people realise their potential, Ponela sculpted an expert
and novice relationship through his mentorship program which has been
running since 2019.

“I provide mentorship to locals who would have probably come forward and
offer themselves to be mentored because it is important when it comes to
reaching goals,” he said.

Girl child empowerment is at the heart of Zonful Energy’s corporate social
responsibility thus it is their obligation to pursue achievable and good
long-term goals.

“We provide scholarships for young girls who are specifically studying
engineering at local universities. Though we have an exceptional case
whereby we awarded a scholarship to a person who is in a different field
altogether because of different circumstances,” he pointed out.

Zonful Energy’s business model revolves around customer centricity which
means that they put their customers on the throne right from the start.

He said: “We actually believe that we need to connect the dots from the
front coming to backwards and the customer is the centre of every business
so we have an obsession that above everything else we have to become
customer centric and the philosophy of customer centricity does not refer to
the outside customer only but it refers to everyone including internally so
whenever we are putting up a service it has to be seen from a perception of
a customer.

“I always tell people that the first rule of marketing is that you are not
a customer, which means that you do not need to do things that pleases you,
everything else has to be taken from the angle of a customer whatever
service that you are providing is it making the other person happy.”

The growing frequency of unfavourable climate conditions has undeniably
proven the need to accelerate the energy transition, a recent report by
World Economic Forum demonstrated that investing in renewable energy makes
sense from a climate perspective.

Commenting on that, Ponela is of the view that the renewable energy sector
today is as ripe for entrepreneurship today as how other sectors have been
for several years now.

He said: “This is the right time to invest in the renewable sector because
of the issues to do with climate and change since there has been global war
cry for people to move to renewable energy.

“Also Zimbabwe is one of the countries that has the largest population
which does not have access to energy it is the right industry for anyone to
venture as such, the key is to understand the business model and
distribution strategy that one is going to pursue.”

As much as the solar industry is poised for growth, the sector is prone to
challenges such as sourcing capital and the navigation of the business
operating ecosystem. 

“One of the major challenges is the anticipated risk factors associated
with our political environment, the perception acts as a setback for
sourcing capital through investors but we have managed to convince other
people to invest in the business.

“By the way we have never raised any single cent from this country, the
biggest challenge which we faced in this country is the perception banks
have towards new companies they don’t want to give you money when the
company is still new.

“They only want to come to you when things start moving, everyday various
people come to my office saying they are offering me this and that. Also,
the other issue has to be in line with the bureaucratic processes associated
with government institutions which goes against the time factor of getting
things done,” he lamented.

Amongst his notable achievements, the enterprising businessman and his team
were once shortlisted for the Energy and Environment Partnership Africa
Project (EEP) of the year award.

Ponela acknowledged that the EEP Africa which focuses on advocating for
gender equality and opportunities for women in the energy sector
strengthened Zonful Energy’s credibility and opened doors for them.

“It opened a lot of doors for us including international media coverage,
even though we were up the runner up for the award.

“In terms of other milestones, we have since grown the company from 5 to
over 73 people at the head office and over 500 people dotted across the
country and the company has since opened branches in each part of the
province. And we have managed to reach over 55000 households in terms of our
products,” he said.

Worth noting is the fact that the success of Zonful Energy is hinged on
team building and a healthy company culture. This is in accord with studies
which have shown repeatedly that there is no replacement for a great company
culture.

“We have a lot of activities which we do to encourage company culture and
team building, every Monday before COVID-19 we would gather around for just
about 20 minutes and people would confess on what they had done wrong and
ways to rectify it so I used to be the first person to say what I have done
wrong so as to encourage a culture of psychological safety.

“I acknowledge the fact that mistakes are not done by a junior only and at
our company, titles are there to guide us and for administration purposes
but everyone in this company is a leader,” he highlighted.

As Zonful Energy has established a position for themselves, the visionaries
behind the company have been leveraging on solidifying intrapreneurship
(entrepreneurial spirit) in its employees.

In addition, they also engage in team building activities through a fitness
program dubbed ‘Fitness for a purpose programme.’

He said: “This is whereby we call a fitness trainer every Friday after 1300
and then we have our lunch followed by two hours of training just to make
sure that we stay fit and we also encourage our people to do the same at
home, this has also helped in building the team.

“During the exercise there is no separation between the management and
subordinates. Culture is a growth strategy so if you don’t have the right
culture your strategies are deemed to fail.”

Ponela is a shining example and a role model to many, in that regard, he
urged aspiring entrepreneurs as well as the general populace to avoid early
gratification.

“That is the biggest problem that we have as a nation, in life there is no
point to prove anything to anyone,” he highlighted.

Ponela has a high regard for the business magnate Strive Masiyiwa.

 “I like the way he grabs opportunities since the ECONET Group is almost
into everything which means that the he knows how to grow a business in
multiple sectors,” he said.

In order to achieve a state of equilibrium between work-life and curbing
entrepreneurial burnout, Ponela said he conditioned his mind to accept
rejection.

“The first thing that I did was to condition my mind to rejection because
one of the difficult things to entrepreneurship is that it’s a lonely
journey so if you don’t condition yourself for rejection you can easily give
up.

 “In terms of work life balance, I have got a program for myself like most
entrepreneurs I wake up very early and I engage into exercises daily I run10
km every morning so I always have time for family discussions,” he said.

-EntremagZW

Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

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