Munyawarara inspired to help the less privileged

By Trevor Ncube | Jun. 2, 2024

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Brian Munyawarara says he went into business in order to help the less privileged in society to access finance

Munyawarara (BM) is the founder of Raysun Capital, a fintech business that provides working capital solutions to small to medium enteprises and short-term credit to individuals and is also executive director of Grace Life Foundation, a social impact organisation, which is impacting the lives of the less privileged in southern Africa.

He spoke about his journey in business on the platform In Conversation with Trevor, which is hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN).

Below are excerpts from the interview.

BM: Thank you so much for having me and it’s a pleasure to be here.

TN: We first met at the Ideas Festival in Nyanga (last year). How was that for you?

BM: That was an incredible experience. I really enjoyed it.

I enjoyed the fact that we were trying to build a platform where people could share and exchange ideas and I’m looking forward to the one that is coming up this November because I feel it’s a good platform.

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I really felt I’m inspired and my colleagues and I really benefited from being part of that.

TN: Brian you went to Brunel University. You did a BSC Honours in Economics and Business and then you decided to come back home. A lot of people say Zimbabwe is tough, I want to go outside.

People are studying to be nurses, when they've got other degrees, just to run away from this country, but you finished university in the UK and you go the opposite direction.

Why did you come back home?

BM: I wouldn't want to lie and say that it was my first choice.

One of my biggest dreams was for me to work for the big four accounting firms including Anderson, Young or PWC, you know.

So I applied to consulting firms. I applied to these big companies with the hope that I would get a job there, but I didn't and I was shattered.

I was gutted and I realised that going home was not a bad option.

I would be able to start from there and pursue my career in finance, which is what I wanted to do and I managed to come back and after coming back then I began the journey with Raysun Capital after piggybacking.

When I came back I sat down with my dad and my dad says to me: ‘what's your plan’ and you know it's a very daunting question when your father is asking you what's your plan and you don't have a plan because you are saying I have come back and I'm hoping I'll be able to do something.

So dad says what's your plan, what is your plan?

TN: What did you say then?

BM: I said to him look, my dream is to be in finance and I have thought about it.

I would like to start a business and he discouraged me and he said to me ‘I don't think you are mature enough to be starting a business very early on.’

I think at the time I was 22 to 23 years and you're saying to me for you to be able to be in business and do it successfully without failing you need a little bit of experience managing people, understanding finances itself.

This was in 2018. It was not necessarily the best time for me to be starting a business.

I said to him, ‘Look I appreciate your concern, but I think this is the path that I would like to take.’

He was very right. Fathers are always right. They are a pool of wisdom, yes, but you know at times you have to push a little bit back so that you can get the ultimate goal that you're try to do.

TN: Absolutely. And by the way your dad is late now. May his soul rest in peace. What do you miss most about your father?

BM: I think I miss being able to look up to someone for counsel and wisdom.

He was a constant figure in not only my life, my family's life as well and the leader.

So you miss that kind of leadership.

Now it's upon us; this generation, well my brothers and I and my mother to continue that leadership, but it's almost like you're being pushed into a position that you're not really necessarily ready for because you know even with our African culture.

And so, I miss that we had a leader in him and he was able to lead us well. He was a civil servant.

TN: Together with your mom?

BM: Yeah; so this is like back in 1994.

So both of them were former civil servants.

He used to work for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce. My mother used to be a midwife.

My father got retrenched and with his package he managed to start the family business, what we call the “Halwage” now.

My mother continued to work for the Ministry of Health as a midwife and then eventually maybe a couple of years later, my father then said ‘No, look I think it's best if we work together on the business.’

And the business is now 28-29 years old, which is something that I'm very grateful for because the legacy that is left is for us.

TN: You and your brothers are running that business?

BM: We are.

TN: So tell me why did you go to study economics and finance?

BM: I think maybe it would be important for me to share this. I actually ended up doing economics. I wanted to become a medical doctor…

TN: Why did you want to become a medical doctor?

BM: I just had passion and care to care for people and I thought that's the best way that I could heal people, be there for them and take care of them.

That was my primary motivating factor to being a doctor and also my mother had always told me; ‘I have always wanted you to be a doctor.’

I didn’t really do very well in biology and chemistry and so on, so I'm like okay I think maybe the easiest route for me to take is commercials.

So I then began to go on that journey, which was into finance.

After completing my A levels I then realised that I had grown a passion for economics and I felt with economics you're able to change your communities.

You are able to change your own life. So that's how I ended up studying finance and economics.

TN: So you graduated with a BSC?

BM: Yes

TN: Where did you do your high school?

BM: I went to Hilcrest College in Mutare. This was in 2008 that's when I started college.

It was a very good experience. I'll say maybe a foundational thing for me and leadership and being groomed well very early on.

I remember very well at the speech night when I was finishing my A levels the headmaster then “Mr Kazivoni” said that I'd been one of the best headboys that the school had seen.

Obviously there are a couple of other teachers that would have been there and have seen, so for them to pass that comment and compliment and to receive the award, I felt very honoured but also at the same time I think it was testament to leadership that I initially I didn't see these same qualities but as I've grown now and especially during this year I've then begun to realise the amount of leadership that is thrust upon me and the expectation from the teams that I lead.

From the people that I interact with there are some other people I remember we have been doing a demystifying money tour around the country with Raysun and Capital.

So now you get people that come up to you and then say I have been looking up to you and I've been following your journey for some time and then it kind of takes me back to say, look I am providing leadership even though I do not see it myself.

TN: How do you do what you do, which you think people notice because there must be a way that you're doing it.

Is it deliberate is it intentional or is it just you?

BM: I think sharing from my own personal experience, I will give you a scenario where we are inside the house and visitors have come home.

I come from a family of all boys, so the visitors have come; you know very well that they have to be taken care of.

You need to arrange accommodation for them. You need to make sure that they have eaten.

I would not sit and say mom and dad will take care of it.

They would come to me and say ‘What's the plan and I'll say to them well I have decided maybe they can sleep in this room.

I think for dinner maybe tonight later we will have this, it will be enough for everybody.

So that's where it starts. So I'm just doing that because you're seeing it's a responsibility and you are feeling a gap.

Now I have become more intentional about it because I realise the power that positive leadership can have on a company which is what I have been leading in communities, which is also what we have been championing through the Grace Life Foundation.

This is how positive leadership works and if you are intentional about it. I will say an example of one of our communities that we have been assisting in the Rugare area where we set up a greenhouse initiative particularly because we are trying to champion sustainable agriculture and sustainable living for these people.

Initially they were saying ‘No, if you just give us the hampers we would be okay.’

I then I realised that we cannot keep giving people handouts, let's empower them.

Let’s teach them how to do it and by doing so we began to see a change not only in their lives. They were motivated.

They began to send their own kids to school. They are able to take care of themselves. I have become more intentional because I realise the power of being intentional about it.

TN: I want us to go to the big project, which is Raysun Capital. Talk to me about the inspiration?

When did the idea grab you? When did inspiration come from?

BM: We all know that we live in one of the countries that are considered to be poor.

There are gaps, there's a persistent gap within our economy or our society of access to finance.

My partner at the time Edon and I sat down and said look what is it that we can do to bring about, what business can we actually formulate that can champion both things?

To say we will empower people at the same time by providing this access to finance, this is how the idea came about.