SULTAN QABOOS UNIVERSITY

College of Economics and Political Science

Independent Research Study
Project Report
ZAD Charity

English for Business 3

LANC 2070
Section 10
Team members:

Names ID Numbers

Submitted to
Mr. Peter Heckadon
Date: 9th of December 2018, Fall18
Originality Declaration

This is to confirm that the project of a non-profit organization in Lusaka, Zambia is

an original work. It was completed by the four team members and submitted in partial

fulfillment for LANC 2070 course.

Student name and ID

Student name and ID

Student name and ID

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Acknowledgements

We are student from the College of Economic and Political science who are taking the

course English for business 3 that is a college requirement. We would like to thank all

our family members and friends who have helped in carrying out this project. We would

also like to extend our thanks to Mr. Peter our instructor for his valuable guides during

developing this work. His willingness to give us his time so generously has been very

much appreciated.

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Table of contents

Originality Declaration.…...………………………………………………………….2

Acknowledgements.………………………………………………………….……….3

Introduction……………………..………………….……………………………..…..5

Organizational Structure and Roles.……………….………...……...…….………….8

Funding and Expenditure.......………….……………………….…………...……….10

PEST and SWOT Analysis……….…………………………….……………...…….15

Significance……………………………………………….………………….………20

Conclusion………………………..…………………………..…………………...….21

Recommendations……………………………………………………………………22

References………………………………………...…….…….…………………...…23

Appendices….…...………………………………….……………………………..…25

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Introduction

Africa is an ancient continent. It has enormous potential such as fertile soil and the

ability to cultivate many healthy varieties of high-quality crops, but unfortunately, these

possibilities have not yet been properly exploited. Without effective agriculture, the

world will starve. Therefore, Africa follows an inefficient farming approach for several

reasons. First, illiteracy and lack of information, most of Africa's farmers today are

young people without education or farmers living in remote areas that are not eligible

for access to new or improved farming methods by satellite. They are unaware of

effective agricultural practices that re-fertilize the soil such as the use of manure and

others. In addition, the high illiteracy rate in rural areas of Africa is leading to a lack of

acceptance by the population of modern agricultural methods. Therefore, they need

intensive education in the agriculture sector to overcome all the ideas that have been

left in their minds. Second, financial support systems which help farmers improve and

grow to maintain the continuity and effectiveness of their production are weak. Most

of Africa's farmers are financially poor. They cannot provide the new factors of

production to modernize their agricultural practices such as disease-resistant seeds that

are at high prices there because they were produced more effectively. Since rural lands

have gotten to be so costly in Africa, most of the poor agriculturists have not any choice

except cultivating on the same land over and over once more. Cultivating on the same

pieces of the area for a long time period leads to its corruption, whereby fertile soil

loses lots of their supplements and ended up barren or unproductive. Farmers

subsequently depend on manufactured fertilizers to empower lands to re-live crops and

make strides of their yields. Manufactured fertilizers are very costly in Africa and in

most agricultural lands, they are inaccessible at all. Therefore, Zambia Agriculture

Development (ZAD) charity decides to focus on the agriculture sector.

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Vision statement:

1. Providing Zambia farmers with intensive education on new and effective

farming methods through practical application and presentation of desired

outcomes (persuasion)

2. Provide them with disease resistant seeds that have been produced safely

3. Provide them with artificial fertilizers imported from abroad

Mission statement:

ZAD charity provides an effective and secure agricultural sector and contributes to the

self-sufficiency of the entire African State.

Background information about Zambia:

Zambia is a landlocked African country located in the east near of countries Angola,

Malawi, Botswana, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia Namibia, and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo. It ranks 70th globally in terms of population which reached

17.6l million in 2018 with an annual growth rate of 3.3%. (Worldpopulationreview,

2018) In fact, it is not too crowded with a population of just 23 people per Square

kilometer. Thus, it occupies the 30th in the world in terms of the size of Countries and

the 191st in the world in terms of population density. Zambia has several cities, the

most significant of which is Lusaka, its capital; it is the largest city with a population

of 2.5 million in 2018. The Original residents of Zambia were the Khoisan people who

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colonized it in the 13th century through the expansion of the Bantu. Zambia is still

divided into 72 ethnic groups, most of them speaking Bantu. Most expatriates are from

South Africa and the UK and a few are from India and China.

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Organizational Structure and Roles

The figure below is showing the organizational structure of ZAD charity. It also shows

the particular role of each team member and the number of workers that the charity may

need. In every organization must be a CEO who understands the business idea. He or

she should also have management, leadership and communication skills to enhance

organizational commitment. He or she must focus on quality, effectiveness, and

efficiency of the organization improvement. In addition, he or she needs an experience

in solving problems. Therefore, all the members voted to choose Ekhlas AL Abri as a

CEO because of her personality that has the skills required in a CEO. Moreover, ZAD

charity needs many managers such as finance, HR, and operations managers. First, the

members have decided that Falak AL Abri will be a manager of finance due to her skills

in mathematics. Second, Hafsa AL Kalbani takes the HR function because of her

excellent communication abilities with people, good treating and her proximity to the

staff. Thirdly, operations management function needs someone who can maintain,

control the process of supply chain and limited resources, so we chose Sarah AL Hajri

for this task because of her ability to make well studied organizational plans. Finally,

we will hire a local person as a volunteer to help us to deal with the local people in

Zambia.

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Figure 1: Organizational Structure

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Funding and Expenditures

The following table shows the estimated expenditure of ZAD charity for the first month.

Expenditure includes seven objects. First, a perfect land which has accommodation for

all the workers, a big chicken run, a water tank, twenty-five different types of fruits and

a big area of three hectares has not been exploited. Second, organic fertilizer because it

is very important to have Fruitful trees and crops in large quantities. Third, a small truck

for delivering the crops from the farm to the market as well as delivering tools and

equipment from the market to the farm. Fourth, tillage machines to plow the earth and

sow seeds. Fifth, equipment that used by farmers such as manual plows and tool carts.

Sixth, employees’ salaries. Finally, electricity and sewage bills.

Table 1: Expenditures

Object Cost Description

land 8,097 OMR 1. 41 Acres Functional Farm

& 2. 3 Roomed Farm House

250,000 ZMW 3. 1 submersible pump

4. a big chicken run

5. about 50m x 40m of wire fence

6. 5000ltrs of water

7. 25 different types of fruit

8. 3 Hectares cleared, the rest is virgin

9. 70 kilometres from Lusaka CBD

10. 63 Km on Mumbwa tarmac

11. 7 kilometres on gravel road

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 12. 1 Borehole & Hand pump

organic 307 OMR 1. 1,000 kg

fertilizer

small truck 5,383 OMR 1. Small white truck

2. Toyota company/ Dyna

3. Used for five years

tillage machine 4,614 OMR 1. Two machines: each one cost 2,307 OMR

2. Place of origin: China (Mainland)

3. Brand: GWW

equipment 100 OMR 1. Agricultural manual tools

2. Genetically modified seeds

salaries 560 OMR 1. One truck driver

2. Two tillage drivers

3. Six farmers

bills 26 OMR 1. Electricity and sewage bills

Total 13,704 OMR

The following figure shows the percentage of each cost out of the total expenditure that

is 13, 704 OMR. It also shows that 42.6% of budget will be for the land, 27.9% will be

for a small white truck that the charity is going to buy, 24.3% will be for the tillage

machines, 2.9% will be for the salaries that charity is going to pay monthly for workers,

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1.6% will be for the organic fertilizer, 0.5% will be for the equipment and 0.1% will be

for the bills.

Figure 2: Expenditures

Adam Smith said that “Just as you can get something anywhere using the money, you

have to pay something to use it’’, so the cost of 13, 704 OMR is huge for students on

their third year at Sultan Qaboos University. As a result, we need to search for possible

ways to get this amount of money. Opening a website and accounts on social media is

one of the easiest ways to promote ZAD charity. Moreover, by opening accounts on

social media we can reach many people as much as possible in Oman and all over the

world, so the charity expects a fund of 4000 OMR and more from the website and 1,

000 OMR from Social media accounts. However, some people don't have even one

account on social media and they enjoy the traditional way of communication. This is

a challenge, but we can fix it by making or participating in some events as well as

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exhibitions, so the charity expects a fund of 300 OMR. We can sell some plants and

seeds to increase the capital for our charity by 1,404 OMR and we can use our website

for this business. Moreover, we have many companies in Oman that have the Ability to

donate and to be sponsors. None of these ways cost as much as it cost for an

advertisement on television.

The next table is showing the fundraising activities.

Table 2: Funding resources

Activity funding

Website 4,000 OMR

Social media accounts 1,000 OMR

Events & Exhibitions 300 OMR

Sponsors 7,000 OMR

The charity’s business 1,404 OMR

The following figure shows the percentage of each funding resource. The funding

resources show that 51.1% of the funding will be from the sponsors, 29.2% will be from

the website, 10,2% will be from the charity's business, 7,3% will be from the social

media accounts and 2,2% will be from events and exhibitions.

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Figure 3: Funding resources

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Discussion

PEST Analysis

Political factors:

Since Zambia independence in 1964, the political situation has remained stable

relatively compared to Zambia regional neighbors. Every five years, Zambia holds

periodic and successful general elections as part of its policies of cooperative

democratic since 1991. Despite continued revising the republican constitution in the

country, the law still exists and supplies a strong peace and stability foundations which

investors are looking for in any country as a valuable factor in the environment of

business. According to the 2016 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG),

Zambia ranked 9th of 54 countries in Africa. The IIAG is a tool to monitor and measure

the performance of governance in African countries, to judge their process, and to

promote the effective development and solutions of responsive policy. Moreover, the

businesses conducted in Zambia were regulated by the positive influence of the

different governments that ruled Zambia over the years on businesses’ policies and

laws. There can be some irregular political conflicts. However, they cannot extend to

major business disruptions. In fact, the government and private sector are making

discussions on the issues that impact on the business environment in number of

channels.

Economic factors:

Zambia had high and sustained economic growth rates over the last decade. This growth

in Zambia's economic is due to the increasing price of copper as one of the mineral

sources that drive the economy of Zambia. In fact, Zambia is the second largest

producer of copper in Africa after the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Overseas

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Business Risk – (Zambia, n.d.) showed that the predicted growth for 2016 is 3% and

will rise to 4.2% in 2018. World Bank classified Zambia as a lower middle country of

income. However, the country seeks to attain a middle-income situation by the year

2030. At the end of 2016, the inflation falls to 8.8%. Policies of government have given

guidance and supplied support for the performance of the economy. Privatization and

liberalization most of the economy of Zambia is one of the decisions' policies that are

related to Zambia economic performance." Privatization of the mines in the late 1990s

removed a major leakage of government resources. The liberalization of the economy

in the 1990s also facilitated foreign direct investment (FDI) into the mining sector.

Other sectors and sub-sectors like agro-processing, construction and services also

benefited from foreign injections into the economy" (Zambia, n.d.).

Social factors:

Zambia considered one of the fastest growing populations in the world. "The current

population of Zambia is 17,793,454 as of Friday, November 16, 2018, based on the

latest United Nations estimates." (Zambia Population (LIVE), n.d.) The United Nations

expects to triple Zambia's population by 2050. Based on the 1996 law, Zambia is a

Christian country. There is, however, a wide variation in religious traditions in Zambia.

Both, Christian beliefs and traditional religious thoughts are combined easily with each

other in many syncretistic churches in the country. Zambia has a respected track record

in human rights. According to overseas business risk – (Zambia, n.d.), ''The constitution

states that no person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading

punishment. The constitution and law also prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention''.

. As any other middle-income country in sub-Saharan Africa, Zambia faces challenges

of the socio-economy such as poverty, lack of basic facilities, poor health condition,

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and high unemployment rates. The Zambian education system includes schools of

government and schools of the private sector. The Christian mission efforts were

contributed to the beginning of the private school system over the late 1990s and early

20th century. There are two levels of education that student at the school will receive;

basic education from 1 to 9 and upper secondary from 10 to 12. The literacy rate of an

adult in 2003 was rated to be 80.6%. 76% of the population was economically active

out of 7.8 million working-age people as showed on 2012’s labor force survey. The

labor force rate reached 5.5 million in fisheries, forestry and rural agriculture; 4.7

million in the informal sector; and 0.8 million in the formal sector. In addition, the

unemployment rate was reached 7.8 percent and it was higher in urban areas than in

rural areas.

Technological factors:

By adopting and utilizing information and communication technologies (ICT) as a

minimizing tool in the development gap, Zambia has the chance to make a difference

in its citizens’ life. Information technology, telecommunications, electronic media, and

postal communication system are the main sub-sectors in Zambian ICT sector. There

are a number of international and regional events which Zambia has participated in

which emphasis on ICTs as a sustainable growth and development tool, such as the

declaration of the world summit of the NEPAD commission and the information society

of the active principles and plan. Moreover, Zambia is focused on ICTs to achieve its

millennium development goals. Some of these goals eliminate poverty and hunger,

accomplish universal primary education and improve healthcare. The Zambian

University is one of the participating institutions in the ICT program of human

resources' education and training. This program can improve the quality of education

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over e-learning and training through online learning. As a step in e-government

establishment, there were a number of ICT projects that set up in Zambia, for instance,

the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS) project. Currently,

there is a shortage in Zambia main ICT skills needed for its information and knowledge

economy development at managerial, technician and professional levels to facilitate the

ICTs development, dissemination and utilization in the public sector as well as the

private sector.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

ZAD charity differentiates from other organizations in Zambia as a non-profit

organization that is working in agricultural sector efficiently. Moreover, it helps to

achieve self-sufficiency for Zambia public by providing financial support and jobs to

ensure that they can make a profit in the long term. As well as the public, the

government will be benefited from charity’s non-profitable services, thereby leads to

economic expansion and diversification. Furthermore, ZAD will enhance their

agriculture sector technologically by using advanced techniques, for instance,

genetically improved seeds, organic and inorganic fertilizer, and agricultural pesticides.

Weaknesses:

Since there is nothing 100 percent perfect, ZAD charity has some weaknesses. Firstly,

financial support of ZAD charity is limited and unsustainable for beginner small charity

because of limitation of funders and sponsors. Secondly, the labor force has traditional

and simple agriculture skills; as a result, we need to provide a training program to

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improve their capabilities. Lastly, the factors of the production are quite costly, for

example, land, labor wages, capital goods; tillage machines and truck.

Opportunities:

Stability of political, economic and social factors of Zambia provides a foundation for

our charity. Additionally, good usage of available natural resources such as abundant

water, and fertile soil is important for sustainability. Consequently, the agriculture

sector is enhanced effectively by increasing the ability to farm many different healthy

and high-quality crops.

Threats:

Zambia has a large number of insects that eliminate the crops in random periods. As a

consequence, it affects the health of Zambian people by raising the rate of exposure to

diseases. Changeable weather risky threats ZAD yields because some crops are

seasonal.

In conclusion, the peaceful political situation, increasing economic growth with high

population rate and technological provides the base of ZAD charity in Zambia. As we

considered above, ZAD has many strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that

affect its performance to promote agriculture sector of Zambia positively or negatively.

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Significance:

ZAD charity will make a significance difference in Zambia. One of the weaknesses, the

Zambia people have the poor use of technology in agriculture. As a result, their

agriculture is not permanent and their crops are exposed to agricultural pests.

Moreover, Adam Smith stated that “Science is the great antidote to the poison of

enthusiasm and superstition”. (Adam Smith Quotes, n.d.) Subsequently, our charity is

going to provide a course for using new technologies and techniques. For example, the

labor is going to learn the method of using tillage machine, organic fertilizer, and

genetically modified seeds. In addition to the course, ZAD is going to teach them the

importance of the use of pesticides periodically to avoid agricultural pests. Moreover,

the project will be supervised continuously to ensure its sustainability and development.

Then, the project will be sustainable.

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Conclusion

To conclude, ZAD's main purpose is to help Zambian people developing their

agriculture sector by providing many volunteer services in order to support the society

of Zambia and also the government. As a result, ZAD charity would have reached its

targeted aim by helping to qualify them to be independent and productive as well in a

long term.

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Recommendations

ZAD will work hard to be a globally recognized non-profit organization as a supporter

of the agricultural sector in African countries. First, the organization will provide a

number of soil experts and its problems to teach local people the right way of farming

and how to deal with their type of soil, and to make sure they will be able to access self-

sufficiency in the future. Second, the charity will buy agricultural land to invest to

ensure that its requirements and needs are met. Despite the high cost of land, ZAD will

work hard to invest well and compensate for losses. The biggest threat the organization

will face is removing insects that eliminate crops at random intervals. As a result, the

health of the population is affected. Moreover, the organization is not sure that the

population in Zambia will be able to get rid of this problem after their education.

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 References

Adam Smith Quotes. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2018, from

https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/adam_smith

Agro Diversification Beneficial for Zambia's Economic Growth. (n.d.). Retrieved

October 20, 2018, from http://www.zda.org.zm/?q=content/agro-

diversification-beneficial-zambia’s-economic-growth

Challenges of developing agriculture. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from

http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/challenges-developing-agriculture/

"Conservation Agriculture in Eastern and Southern Provinces of Zambia: Long-term

Effects on Soil Quality and Maize Productivity." NeuroImage. October 31,

2012. Retrieved October 20, 2018,

from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167198712002152

Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG). (n.d.). Retrieved November 11, 2018,

from http://mo.ibrahim.foundation/iiag/

National Information and Communication Technology Policy. (n.d.). Retrieved

November 16, 2018, from

http://workspace.unpan.org/sites/Internet/Documents/UNPAN033695.pdf

Overseas Business Risk - Zambia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/overseas-business-risk-

zambia/overseas-business-risk-zambia

The African Farmer: Problems facing Agriculture. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2018,

from https://www.africaw.com/the-african-farmer-problems-facing-agriculture

The History of Zambia. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from

https://www.zambiatourism.com/about-zambia/history/

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Zambia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2018, from

https://www.marketresearchreports.com/countries/zambia

Zambia country profile. (2018, January 03). Retrieved November 12, 2018, from

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14112449

Zambia Development Agency. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2018, from

http://www.zda.org.zm/?q=download/file/fid/193

Zambia Population (LIVE). (n.d.). Retrieved November 16, 2018, from

http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/zambia-population/

Zambia Population 2018. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2018, from

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/zambia-population/

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Appendices:

The map of Zambia:

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Powerpoint slides:

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Website page:

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