Mozambique

Small Business Ideas

In 2011 I made two trips to Mozambique to help a couple of agricultural supply companies explore ways to grow their businesses.  During my time there I was impressed by the ingenuity of the Mozambican people.  Many people created their jobs with almost no capital.  It provides ideas for those of us in other developing countries.  Click any photo for a larger image.

Birdhouses!  These birdhouses are made from grass with a floor of bamboo.

The woman at right was selling them on the road near her home.

They normally would be hung in a shade tree.
 

Bamboo chairs.  Also chairs made from reeds.  Several different designs were available.

 

Here's a guy (left) who makes buckets and pots from sheet metal using simple tools.  Most of the sheet metal he is is recycling from industrial waste.

At right is a road sign advertizing a private nursery selling grafted fruit trees.  Most grafted fruit trees bear fruit earlier than seedling trees, and the varieties are exact clones of the best parent varieties.
 

A cooking grill made from a  recycled wheel rim (left).

A grill made from the bottom of a propane gas cylinder (right).   

Doors and windows in their frames, ready for a house.  Buy these, then build your brick, bamboo or grass house around them.

And bed frames.

For the tourist trade, a bird that balances on it's perch (left).  Looks as if it should fall, but it's cleverly designed.

Another chair at right.

And from Kenya, here are a couple of my favorites:

Roadside cane sellers.  The peel and cut up the cane, then sell to passing motorists.  We need this in Fiji!

Rubber stamps cut from the sidewall of rubber tires.  All custom made to order in approximately half an hour.  The customer and craftsman draw it out on paper, the the craftsman cuts it - BACKWARDS - so it prints correctly.

My photos of Mozambican culture.

Back to the Outdoorplace.org Homepage.