Melons and manganese: How universities earn from side hustles

Starting a business to supplement one’s main source of income is common in day-to-day living. Often referred to as a side hustle, an additional source of income can be very helpful in meeting recurrent and capital costs. But side hustles are not peculiar to individuals. Institutions can have them, too.

This is the case with two universities in the Southern Africa Development Community, or SADC, region, namely Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) in Zimbabwe and Zambia’s Copperbelt University (CBU).

CUT has been engaged in a rock melon (also known as cantaloupe or spanspek) farming project, while CBU recently acquired licensing to mine manganese.

Generating income, however, is not the only reason behind the projects which seek to kill two birds with one stone. In addition to creating new revenue streams, the projects also aim to give agriculture and mining students hands-on practical experience.

Exports to Dubai

CUT recently hogged the limelight in Zimbabwe’s local media after exporting eight tons of rock melon to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The rock melon project is being spearheaded by Dr Fungayi Chatiza from CUT’s agriculture department. Oswell Ushe, the institution’s farm manager, was quoted in local media as saying CUT is aiming to export up to 30 tons in the future.

Chatiza spoke to University World News on the export process which she said was not “a walk in the park”, as it required in-depth knowledge of policy changes and regulations, high borrowing costs, logistics challenges, high quality demands, and so on. Despite the challenges, it was still worth the institution’s while, she said.

Universities and their business ventures

She believes that universities should not “watch business from the bench”, but should be partly or completely self-sustainable through various sources of funding to ease the burden on the national fiscus.

Public universities such as CUT receive a lot of their funding from the government. Alternative sources of revenue, according to Chatiza, enable universities to, among other things, expand research, offer scholarships, undertake multiple innovative projects including capital projects, modernise their infrastructure and laboratories, provide state-of-the-art equipment and actively participate in business and industry for economic development.

She said: “Zimbabwe is targeting one billion in export earnings from horticulture by 2030. It would be great to participate and contribute to this growth as CUT, and other interested players.”

Rock melons are not CUT’s only source of alternative revenue as the institution has its tentacles in other agricultural ventures. Housed under the Agro Industrial Park, these include cattle-breeding, artificial insemination and semen sales.

Mining venture

In neighbouring Zambia, CBU recently acquired a manganese mine in the Mwense district of Luapula province. But some work still has to be done before it will start earning revenue for the university.

Therefore, the story of CBU is not exactly the same as that of CUT. While CUT started its rock melon business with an investment from the university of US$50,000 for every hectare, CBU seeks to take an entirely different approach altogether.

Instead of pouring its own money into the project, CBU is looking for an outside investor. Operations are expected to commence once an investor has been secured.

President of the Copperbelt University Students’ Union, Bright Ngalamika praised the government for granting CBU the mining licence, saying students will be the biggest beneficiaries.

He said: “First of all, it is a good move for the government to allow an institution like CBU to have a licence in the mining industry, looking at the fact that it’s going to be a source of revenue for the institution … The revenue is going to help the institution sustain its operations and day-to-day activities which will directly benefit members of staff and, most importantly, the students.”

An educational agenda

CUT’s rock melon project and CBU’s mining initiative are both going to be used to impart knowledge to students.

Chatiza said CUT has a school of agriculture that houses several programmes, including crop science, food science and agricultural engineering, among others. She said CUT students acquire hands-on experience through research, practicals as well as industrial attachment and “the rock melon pilot project is an initial step in this direction to ensure that, not only does the university benefit, but students obtain skills and know-how to participate in the export industry.”

Similarly, Ngalamika said students will benefit directly from CBU’s manganese mining initiative as “the project is student-driven”.

Said Ngalamika: “Students are going to be doing industrial attachment from there [the mine] and also internships from there, meaning this is going to create a direct platform for students to benefit.”

Alternative revenue sources

In an article published by the International Journal of Higher Education titled ‘Sub-Sahara Africa’s Higher Education: Financing, Growth and Employment’, Aloysius Amin and Augustin Ntembe note that higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa is underfunded.

They state: “The decline in government-dominated funding of higher education demonstrates how this financing source is unsustainable in the medium to long term.” They go on to say: “Government spending in most countries is overstretched and is insufficient to respond to the surge in demand for access to higher education in these countries.”

University World News has also previously reported on underfunding of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa in an article titled ‘Funding Levels of Higher Education a Grave Concern’.

Several recent studies have encouraged higher learning institutions to venture into business and entrepreneurship. A study carried out in Nigeria by O Okpa and reported on in 2019 in the International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology, recommends institutional managers to “initiate appropriate income-generating strategies”.

The study notes that, in recent times, institutions have started exploring alternative sources of funding to supplement their income – something CUT and CBU are certainly trying to do.