Firm introduces cattle backed savings and insurance
Staff Writer
HARARE, Local enterprise – Agrostrong has introduced some cattle backed savings and insurance for investors locally and in South Africa as the firm commercializes cattle to preserve and grow value for investors.
This comes as the firm is also pushing for a culture of savings and providing alternative investment products for Zimbabweans locally and beyond borders.
Over the past decade, Zimbabweans lost their savings and pensions due to macroeconomic conditions that were beyond their control.
This has also happened to other people and businesses across the region, more than once, prompting Agrostrong founders to come up with a solution to tackle the challenge. In Zimbabwe in particular, people lost their savings when the economy dollarized in 2009 following a hyperinflationary period.
“The solution lay in finding an asset that would be able to withstand the vagaries of the environment, and possibly appreciate in value,” said chief executive officer Bhekithemba Nkomo.
“This led the founders to the age-old investment that our forefathers have always had – cattle. This has always been an asset class that our great-grandparents treasured and used to store value, at all times.
“With passion for technology and the recently identified cattle asset class, it then became easy for the Agrostrong to birth these solutions to commercialize cattle and use them to preserve and grow value for investors,” he said.
For the cattle backed saving, clients invest their money as a lump sum or in agreed periodic amounts. The money raised from all clients is used to procure steers for fattening in state of the art pens.
Nkomo revealed the fattening process happens over a period of 90 days, using high quality feed manufactured onsite after which the steers will be sold to an abattoir.
After the sale, clients have a choice to withdraw their funds or reinvest.
“The minimum investment period is 90 days. After this period, the investor can either withdraw fully, that is capital and interest, or a portion of the invested amount,” said Mr Nkomo.
Any funds remaining after withdrawal are reinvested for another 90-day cycle.
The investments attract a minimum guaranteed return of 4 percent per 90-day cycle which translates to 16 percent per year in US dollars.
For Zimbabwean investments, the deposits will be held locally while those in South Africa will be held in that country. Agrostrong will use a debit order system for South African investments while locally, bank transfers will be used.
