After completing her degree in Risk Management in 2016, Melissa Messe Mwale was lucky enough to land a job immediately, working as an intern at a local power company in Zimbabwe. To supplement her income, she embarked on selling second hand clothes from the boot of her car. However, that same year, tragic dealt her a heavy blow. She lost her brother in an accident. He was only 33 years old. This loss acted as an eye opener on how she was living her life. It made her do an introspection into her own life and purpose. “I soon realized that I wasn’t happy in that particular role, so I started thinking about starting my own business. I had never thought about it before, nor did I have any experience, but I wanted to try at least.”
On her choice of business, Melissa decided, to start one, that would not only benefit her and her family, but people from her country at large. This led to the birth of the ‘HIVE’.
The ‘HIVE’ is one of the most successful digital online shopping stores in Africa that mostly supports local artisans and suppliers.
“My main driver has always been to put Zimbabwe, and Africa in general, on the global market, to reach a global scale. So for instance, if someone is making a really nice handbag here, I’d like that person to be able to sell it anywhere.”
The platform has a secure online shopping service with multiple payment methods to choose from such as Debit Visa Cards, Zimswitch, electronic funds transfer, PayPal, EcoCash, Wallet One, Zipit, Bitcoin and cash on delivery.
After successfully running the HIVE for a while, Melissa who has always been fascinated about technology transforming lives, decided to co-found another e-commerc business, The CryptoGem Global.
CryptoGem is a peer-to-peer bitcoin trading platform where people around the globe can exchange their local currencies and e-money to bitcoin.
“I believe that blockchain can fight social injustice. For example, if you look at the payments industry. If I want to send, say $500, I’d be charged 10%. So it would cost me $50. Bank charges in Zimbabwe, and in Africa in general, are very, very high. The cost is always pushed onto the end user. With blockchain, sending money would cost a tiny fraction of that, or nothing at all. Technologies like blockchain make everything cheaper, which means more people can benefit from it.”
Last month, Melissa was named among Fobes Africa’s 30 Under 30 list under the category of technology.
In 2018, she represented Zimbabwe in the 2018 Afrobytes Tech Industry Marketplace in Paris, France where she shared her journey in the e-commerce and blockchain industry.
“Sharing the African story with international investors made my dream more tangible. I believe in creating solutions for Africa that work for Africa instead of duplicating the West. In the midst of the difficulties currently being faced by my country, Zimbabwe, I still dare to hope, I still believe in solutions that will help everyone at large.”
One of her goals is to mentor other women in business and create opportunities that might create 100 female millionaire entrepreneurs in Africa by 2030, through an organization she founded called Messe Foundation.
“I don’t want Africa to be left behind. If I’m able to create solutions that can help both the African community and the international community to be on the same page, that’s what I focus on. So it’s all about empowering Africa, because sometimes countries elsewhere attempt to impose solutions based on their own standards, without realizing that society here is different, and those solutions will not work.
Sources:
Forbes Africa
Block Leaders
