MUTARE-Destiny of Africa Network (DaNet) will embark on an ambitious project to distribute 1 trillion trees across the continent and generate billions of dollars, it has been learnt.
DaNet will engage in the aggressive afforestation scheme with local youths who will plant tree seedlings to be distributed in Africa, its founder Obadiah Musindo said recently.
Musindo was speaking at a media tour of DaNet projects in Mutare recently, where trees have already been planted.
He said 1 Trillion Trees for Africa project is part of an empowerment scheme that includes establishment of income generating projects to create employment opportunities for locals.
“We have a special project on the cards to promote the planting of trees across Africa to reach a total of 1 trillion.
“From our preliminary calculations at 1 cent profit from each tree, this could generate $10 billion. What this project entails is that we are going to employ women and youths who will plant the seedlings,” he said.
He added, “As you can see we have already started this program off in our projects because we believe that all our projects should have enough trees, this is in part response to the scourge of climate change.”
Musindo said private entities should develop sustainable programs for beneficiation and value addition in support of government’s economic blueprint Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio Economic Transformation (ZIMASSET).
He said profits from the 1 Trillion Trees for Africa project could draw over $10 billion from minimal returns calculations, as well as sustainable empowerment for youths.
Musindo said DaNet was also on an assimilation drive to engage graduate engineers and technical staff to provide members with a comprehensive construction support.
“This is a group of graduate youths including engineers and a town planner who are going to be working for us
“In future we want to provide you with all technical support from builders plumbers, we will have a building brigade, to assist members, to have our own door frames made by our own people.
“We are at advanced stages of forming a building brigade to be known as Zimbabwe Building Brigades Association (ZIBBA) that will be led by youths,” he said.
Musindo said this will ensure upstream and downstream linkages with other sideline projects, while feeding personnel from institutions in the hybrid construction unit, ZIBBA.
Meanwhile, DaNET seeks to construct group of specialized clinics, schools, on project sites.
“Our target is to have our own group of schools from secondary to vocational. We want to build our own group of clinics, that’s why we have applied.
“Council has been requesting that we surrender back institutional land but we are now saying we need to meet the needs of the people.
“In this regard we are setting up a Trust that will be tasked to come up with a Health and Education department to push forward with our projects. Each of our housing projects should have a school and a clinic,” said Musindo.
