What We Offer
Invest in Africa
Agri-Food Consulting
Understand the opportunity before you commit.
Investing in Africa’s agri-food industry can turn your ambition into a business that creates jobs, supports producers and serves customers. A strong investment starts with understanding the market, the costs and how the business will operate.
At H|M Agri-Food Consulting & Speaking, Dr. Harold Mayaba helps Zambians and other Africans living abroad, alongside international businesses, assess opportunities and develop practical plans for investing in Africa.
Whether you are considering farming, food processing, agricultural inputs, storage or distribution, we help you answer three essential questions:
Who will buy? Where can you create value? What will it take to build a viable business?
“Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing.”
Understand demand, customers and prices before investing.
An attractive business idea needs evidence of a market. We research your chosen product, location and customers to assess the opportunity.
Our market research can include:
- Market size and demand: Estimate the market’s value and sales volumes, identify customer segments and assess the share your business could realistically serve.
- Prices and seasonal patterns: Examine farm-gate, wholesale and retail prices, including differences by location, quality and season.
- Customer needs: Understand what buyers value, their purchasing habits, willingness to pay and requirements for quality, packaging and reliability.
- Competitor analysis: Assess existing suppliers, competing products, price positioning and gaps your business could serve.
- Routes to market: Evaluate potential buyers and sales channels, including processors, wholesalers, retailers and institutional customers.
- Domestic and export opportunities: Compare local demand, imports and potential regional or international markets.
What this helps you decide: What to produce or sell, whom to target, how to price it and what scale of operation the market could support.
Identify where to invest—and what your business will depend on.
A successful agri-food business depends on more than production. Inputs, processing, storage, transport and buyers all influence whether a product reaches the market competitively.
We map the journey from inputs to the final customer, examining:
- Key participants: Input suppliers, producers, aggregators, processors, transporters, distributors and buyers.
- Costs and margins: Where costs arise, how prices change between stages and where value is created or lost.
- Supply reliability: Availability, quality and seasonality of raw materials and essential inputs.
- Operational bottlenecks: Constraints involving storage, cold chains, electricity, water, transport and processing capacity.
- Value addition opportunities: Options such as grading, processing, packaging, preservation and using by-products.
- Business relationships: How supplier arrangements, buyer requirements and payment terms affect operations and cash flow.
What this helps you decide: Where your investment fits best, which partners and infrastructure it needs, and which constraints to address before committing capital.
Helping Zambians and other Africans living abroad assess opportunities and build viable agri-food businesses back home.
You want your investment to build something meaningful back home. Turning that ambition into a workable business requires clear information and a plan you can manage—even while living abroad.
We can help you:
- Compare business ideas against market demand, available resources and your investment goals.
- Develop feasibility studies and business plans with realistic cost, revenue and cash-flow assumptions.
- Identify and assess potential local suppliers, buyers and operating partners.
- Plan management responsibilities, reporting and financial controls for a business managed from abroad.
- Develop a phased approach, starting with validation or a pilot before expanding.
- Set milestones for implementation and review progress against the agreed plan.
The aim: Give you a clearer basis for deciding whether, where and how to invest back home.
Plan your entry into African agri-food markets.
Each country, sector and location presents different opportunities and operating conditions. We help international businesses assess their options and develop a market entry plan suited to their objectives.
Services can include:
- Country and sector assessment: Compare selected markets using demand, competition, supply availability, infrastructure and operating costs.
- Market entry strategy: Assess options such as direct operations, distribution partnerships, joint ventures, local sourcing or processing.
- Commercial feasibility: Model investment requirements, operating costs, revenues, working capital and break-even points; test how changes in prices, costs or sales affect viability.
- Partner and supplier assessment: Establish selection criteria and support the commercial evaluation of potential partners, suppliers and buyers.
- Sourcing and supply chain planning: Assess procurement, quality requirements, storage, logistics and opportunities to work with local producers.
- Country-specific requirements: Identify relevant market access, food safety and operating requirements, coordinating specialist local advice where needed.
- Implementation planning: Develop a phased roadmap with responsibilities, milestones and performance measures.
The aim: Help your business enter a selected market with clearer commercial evidence, operational priorities and a practical implementation plan.
Work With Dr. Harold Mayaba
Dr. Harold Mayaba brings together agricultural experience in Zambia, commercial farming experience in New Zealand and an applied economics background.
His approach connects customer insight with the practical realities of production, markets and business operations.
Depending on your project, an engagement may include a market assessment, value chain analysis, feasibility study, business plan or implementation roadmap, with assumptions and information gaps clearly identified.
Have an investment idea—or a market you want to explore?
Tell us what you are considering, where you want to invest and what you need to understand before taking the next step.
Lead With Purpose
Keynotes, Workshops & Coaching
Inspire your people with purpose, hope and resilience. Put purpose at the centre of your business through practical workshops and coaching that connect leadership, employee contribution and customer experience.
Inspire
Keynotes
Lead with a clear sense of why your business exists and the contribution it makes.
Audience takeaways
- Use purpose to guide decisions.
- Connect people’s work to meaningful contribution.
- Align leadership actions with customer value.
Through his grandfather’s lion story and his own journey, Dr. Harold explores how purpose gives us the courage to move forward.
- Identify what matters enough to act.
- Recognise fear without letting it dictate every decision.
- Choose a practical next step.
Find direction and possibilities when circumstances change.
- Reconnect with a meaningful goal.
- Identify realistic routes forward.
- Turn hope into purposeful action.
Respond to setbacks, adapt and keep moving towards goals that matter.
- Learn from difficult experiences.
- Build supportive habits and relationships.
- Adapt your approach while staying connected to your purpose.
Apply
Workshops
Clarify why your business exists, whom it serves and how its purpose guides priorities and everyday decisions.
Takeaway: A purpose statement and a 90-day implementation plan.
Connect employees’ roles to meaningful contribution. Work on role clarity, recognition, collaboration and accountability.
Takeaway: Team commitments, leadership actions and agreed performance measures.
Translate your business’s purpose into its customer promise, service standards and response to feedback.
Takeaway: Customer service standards and a prioritised improvement plan.
Sustain
Coaching
Individual support for business owners and leaders to clarify priorities, lead consistently and navigate challenges.
Focus: Purpose, leadership decisions, confidence, hope and resilience.
Help your team strengthen shared purpose, communication and accountability.
Focus: Agreed ways of working and practical commitments that support your business goals.
Follow-up sessions to support your workshop action plan, review progress and resolve obstacles.
Focus: Turning commitments into consistent action and reviewing agreed measures.
When purpose leads, fear bows.
Sessions are tailored to your audience, business priorities and desired outcomes.
“People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it.”
Your Story Isn’t Over
Purpose, Hope & Resilience for Students
While still in high school, Dr. Harold Mayaba experienced homelessness and uncertainty about his future. At one point, he almost ended his life. Today, he draws on his story and education journey to help students recognise their worth, find purpose and see possibilities beyond their present circumstances.
Through honest storytelling and interactive activities, we help young people find direction, take practical steps forward and recognise the importance of reaching out for support when life becomes difficult.
Available Formats
School Keynotes & Q&A
A story-led presentation followed by a student conversation, adapted to the age group and school’s priorities.
Interactive Student Workshops
Guided reflection and activities that help students explore purpose, set a meaningful goal and develop a practical action plan.
What Students Can Take Away
- A clearer connection between learning and personal purpose.
- Greater recognition of their strengths and available support.
- One meaningful goal and a practical next step.
Your circumstances are part of your story. Your next chapter is still being written.
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.”
Tell us your students’ age group, your preferred format and what you hope the session will help them explore.
Explore the Topics
A personal story of hardship, education and possibility.
Dr. Harold shares his experience of homelessness as a high school student and the turning points that shaped his journey. Students are invited to reflect on their strengths, the value of support and the possibilities beyond their present circumstances.
Give learning a meaningful direction.
Help students explore their values, interests and the contribution they want to make. Connect everyday learning with personal goals and a future they have a reason to pursue.
Turn possibility into practical action.
Help students identify a meaningful goal, consider realistic ways forward and choose an achievable next step. Encourage them to recognise people and resources that can support their progress.
Build courage to face challenges and move forward.
Explore fear, setbacks and persistence through Dr. Harold’s experiences. Students consider how to respond to obstacles, adapt their plans and ask for help when they need it.
AI Strategy & Automation
Work smarter. Make informed decisions. Grow with purpose.
At H|M Agri-Food Consulting & Speaking, we help businesses use AI to reduce repetitive work, improve customer service and find opportunities for growth.
We support agri-food businesses, diaspora investors, international businesses exploring African markets and other growing enterprises.
Available through strategy consultations, automation projects, team workshops and ongoing support.
“Our future will not be defined by what we have built, but what we empower others to build.”
Identify where AI can add value to your business. We assess your priorities and develop a practical plan suited to your operations, team and budget.
Monitor market trends, available pricing information, competitor activity and customer feedback. Turn information into useful reports that support business and investment decisions.
Simplify enquiries, customer follow-ups, bookings, record keeping and reporting. For businesses managed from abroad, organise operational updates and reminders to help owners stay informed.
Develop systems to find relevant tenders, grants, buyers and business partners. Track deadlines and prepare follow-up messages for review.
Equip your team to use AI confidently. We provide practical training, system setup and ongoing support, with appropriate checks on information and outputs.
Testimonials
Dr. Harold Mayaba’s keynote in Dubai was honestly nothing short of inspiring. His take on “Purpose-Led Growth vs. Profit-Led Growth” really broke the usual way of thinking and struck a chord with leaders from all kinds of industries. With his mix of academic insight, real-world experience, and genuine storytelling, Harold delivered a talk that was not just thought-provoking but truly moving.
He speaks with such clarity, confidence, and a rare kind of sincerity that instantly connects with the audience. Harold doesn’t just talk about purpose- he actually lives it- and that authenticity leaves a lasting impression.
Working with him for The Global Icons of Impact 2025 Summit has genuinely been such a pleasure.
Pooja Rathod – PR Advisor & Strategic Branding Consultant
Dr. Harold Mayaba exhibits confidence when addressing a diverse array of topics before audiences. His presentations at the Haven Church in Nelson have garnered praise for his storytelling skills and his ability to establish meaningful connections with his listeners.
Jonathas Newlands – Minister of Region
Dr. Mayaba is a powerhouse of encouragement; he helped me when I felt like giving up on life. It was the time I lost my father, who committed suicide. He helped me rediscover the real meaning of life and to have the courage to push on. Thanks, Harold.
Abel Mumba – Marketing Manager
Clients I have worked with
