Divine Ndhlukula is the founder of Securico Security Services in Zimbabwe and has quickly become a leader and inspiration for female African entrepreneurs. Securico is a full-service security company providing protection ranging from live surveillance monitoring to guard dogs.
The company started with just Ndhlukula, four employees, and a small cottage. She overcame financial and societal hurdles to grow her company to one that now sees more than $10 million in revenue each year.
Ndhlukula isn’t just wealthy; she’s likeable. Here are 8 reasons why people love Zimbabwean Entrepreneur Divine Ndhlukula.
She’s one of Zimbabwe’s top employers of women
Divine Ndhlukula’s company employs more than 4000 people including 900-plus women, making her one of the largest employers of women in Zimbabwe. Ndhlukula has encouraged women to enter security — traditionally a male-dominated profession,
Her company was the underdog…at first
Ndhlukula admitted in an interview that a lot of companies did not want to hire female security guards when she founded her company. This lack of confidence transferred over to her employees. Ndhlukula had to work hard to convince them they could do a “man’s job.” The only way to overcome the prejudices her company faced was to become better than the competition. She put a lot of time and effort into training her staff. Ndhulukula taught her female guards to be professional and proud in their work. Eventually, this “was noticeable on the market, and we grew,” she said.
Her technology is cutting edge
Securico has some of the most advanced and cutting-edge technology in the security industry. The company sets up access control systems that can allow entry via fingerprints, swipe tags and pin-codes. Securico also has remote monitoring services that can detect movement around isolated properties and record live footage. You can see a full range of her services at Securico.oc.zw.
She’s always been money smart
Ndhlukula has a degree in accounting, and her first major jobs out of college were in that field, but while working as an accountant, she had a side hustle buying clothes directly from a factory and selling them for a profit. She started paying some of her colleagues a commission to sell the clothes for her,
She’s overcome adversity
When Ndhhlukula was younger, her family was drowning in financial debt. Ndhlukula sold her truck to help relieve her family of debt. She was then forced to take out a loan to go into farming. Her first year as a farmer, Zimbabwe had a drought. She eventually went back to her previous work as an accountant,
She connects with her employees
Ndhlukula says that she works to connect with her employees and to get to know them so she can align “their personal goals with their business goals.” she told Howwemadeitinafrica.com that she aspires to know everything about her 4,000-or-so employees including their families, their aspirations outside of work and their worst fears.
She won Most Influential Woman of the Year award
In 2015, Ndhlukula was named Most Influential Woman of the Year for her concerted efforts in empowering women in Zimbabwe and the region. Other winners on that list have included Hilary Clinton, Michelle Obama and former Mozambican first lady Graca Machel. The award was given by Empowering a Billion Women (EBW2020), a global movement that gives women entrepreneurs the financial confidence,
tools and resources to reach the $1 million mark in company revenue.
She’s disciplined, but fun
When asked to list her top business tips, Ndhlukula said “Pay it off, don’t pay it forward. Or put simply, be frugal.” She practices a lot of financial discipline and teaches it to her employees. But she isn’t above celebrating every small accomplishment of her staff. Ndhlukula says her company celebrates even the tiniest successes because “that is how people look forward to winning and being successful” according to Howwemadeitinafrica.com.
