RUTENDO RORI
A Marondera craftsman, Joseph Chifamba, is making a fortune from cow horns and hooves dumped by abattoirs, fashioning beautiful bracelets, necklaces, rings, and earrings.
The 35-year-old Chifamba, through his company, Chief African Jewels, a registered small to medium enterprise (SME),which he founded in 2006 targets high end buyers in Belgravia, Harare.
He formed the company after leaving his job at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation where he was a license inspector.
His first-class jewellery and ornaments from neglected cow horns and hooves are also exported overseas.
Speaking to Business Times, Chifamba said he buys the dumped horns and hooves from abattoirs at US$2 per 50kg. He sells the jewellery from these for between US$2 and US$50.
He revealed he has built a decent home in one of Marondera’s posh suburbs.
Chifamba, who has now been in the industry for almost 15 years, also said he has been able to send his children to decent schools.
“Our business has been operating since 2006 and it is our source of livelihood,’ Chifamba told Business Times.
He added: “We now have our own place to stay, we are managing to send our children to better schools.
“I used to work for ZBC and I left for crafting in 2006.
“If you are self-employed, you set your own targets. I feel content because I have achieved a lot, and I believe through hard work and God’s grace, we are going to achieve more. It is my hope that we are going to employ more people in the future.”
Chifamba said Chief African Jewels secured a loan from the Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe in 2007 which was used as working capital. The business, he said, has since grown.
Chief African Jewels also won a grant from Culture Fund Zimbabwe in 2007.
Two years ago, Chief African Jewels won second prize money in the International Labour Organisation Green Enterprise challenge.
What is fascinating about this kind of business is that cow horns and hooves are natural materials that are repurposed from the food industry to reduce waste (waste management).
Chifamba is simply making use of what is considered as waste at abattoirs, to make money.
Zimbabwe is highly informalised due to closure of numerous formal companies. It is estimated that Zimbabwe’s informal workforce is more than 80% of the country’s total number of workers. The informal sector is immensely contributing to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
It is estimated that in Zimbabwe, SMEs contribute more than half of the country’s GDP.
Chifamba said the horns and hooves can come in various shades of milk, honey, caramel, chocolate all with different colours of white and honey flecks.
“After purchasing the cow horns and hooves from abattoirs, we bring them to our workshop in Marondera where we start with the cutting process using a cutting disc. The process differs with the product that we want to make,” Chifamba told Business Times.
He added: “For instance, if we want to make earrings, we have machines with different functions.
We use a cutting disc; we call them cutting and drilling machines. We cut the horns into certain shapes that we want. After cutting them into pieces, we sand them using sandpaper. After that we make templates which match with the shapes that we have made from the horns, and then we draw the shapes onto the horns. We make sure that the shapes are identical in terms of colour and shape. Horns have different colours and different patterns so if you just draw without matching them, they will come out different.
“After drawing, we then use our cutting machine to cut the drawings, and also use the same machine to drill holes. After that we do what is called buffing which is the same as polishing. We use a buffing mop or buffing cloth. After that we wait for a bit, and then we polish again. Then we have our finished products which we take to the market.”
Chifamba said Covid-19 induced lockdowns have adversely impacted on his business.
“Our products are mostly sought after by tourists but because of the current lockdown and travelling restrictions due to Covid-19, we cannot get good sales and we can’t break even. We cannot travel to do international exhibitions and even local exhibitions because we do a lot of exhibitions, international trade fairs. That is where we meet most of our clients, so the current lockdowns and travelling restrictions are affecting our business adversely.
“That is the major challenge we are facing. We are hoping to counter that through a website that we have created for our business and we are hoping to market our products on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram,” he said.
Chifamba said is targeting to buy a five-hectare plot where he can build a bigger factory.
“We also want to acquire a five hectare plot and build a bigger factory. We have applied for land, and we are on the waiting list,” he told Business Times.
