TODAY we look at one of the smallest businesses the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), especially the youth, are engaged in for survival as a substitute for employment.
Car washing business in Lusaka is on the upswing and this is linked to the influx of high number of motor vehicles.
Data shows that more than 700 vehicles hit the roads every month in the country imported from abroad and half of these vehicles trek to Lusaka roads.
In our geography studies we learnt that geographic location of industries such as the discovery of copper deposits in Solwezi has provided not only employment opportunities to local people but also the upsurge of related businesses to the mines.
In Lusaka a survey has shown that the unemployed youths have employed themselves by engaging in car-washing businesses.
The established car-wash businesses in peripheral of Lusaka town centre have faced huge business competition by self-imposed car washers in the heart of Lusaka and elsewhere in the busy cities in the country.
Along one busy street in Lusaka town centre the survey reviewed that 24 youths control the car-washing business and each earn not less than K60 per day working from 07.00hrs to 18.00hrs.
They have extended their services to such busy institutions like Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) car park where vehicles for members of staff and clients are attended to.
Joe Mwale (not a real name) said he sustains a wife out of such an income and is saving money possibly to take him to a college.
He told me that it is not easy for him to accept a job that can pay him less than K1,200 per month as net pay because on average he earns not less K 1,500 per month from car wash business.
The average charge for washing one car is K10.
Mwale demonstrated to me that youths in Lusaka and elsewhere in the country are identifying business ventures that are posed to help them better their lives instead of waiting for the government to create employment ventures for them.
Motorists around Lusaka will agree with me that it is not easy to find a parking space in the town centre especially after 09.00 hour on a week day.
This has further boosted the marketing aspect of the car washers by directing stranded motorists looking for parking spaces to their spaces to lure them in their spaces and one condition is to wash their cars.
Actually one day I was stranded and a mentally-retarded person lured me to a parking space for his customers and I had no option when pulling out, but to part away with a K5.
However, I was pleased to part away with the money because I thought it was one way of helping him.
Those motorists who park their vehicles near Radian Stores on Freedom Way at Lusaka’s town centre have seen this man.
I have given this example because it appears that even some mentally-challenged residents have jumped on the bandwagon of recognising some of these opportunities of making money.
Back to Joe Mwale his revenue outlook shows that on average he earns K50 per day translating into about K1,500.00 per month.
Out of this income he saves K20.00 per day to keep his ambition of going to college at one stage in his life live.
The kind of saving he is involved in is what I call primitive banking popularly known as ‘ichilimba’.
Ichilimba is the kind of saving that is agreed upon by a number of people who on a particular day pay a certain amount into a treasury to the appointed cashier and the cashier is tasked to pay a selected contributor on the same day.
The cashier pays one person every day until the last person and the task is repeated over and over.
It appears that street businesses gather quite substantial income that at times can attract tax from taxation bodies like Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) and local authorities to beef up their revenue base.
I was amazed when I was informed that some of the women who sell assorted food stuffs on the streets of Lusaka, especially at the town centre sell not less than K700 per day translating in sales of about K21,000.00 in 30 days.
This makes them to be among the highly paid individuals in town.
However, it is important to note that such incomes contain the cost of doing business which can account for above 50 per cent of the total incomes.
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