INNSCOR Africa (Innscor) says it has started exploring solar generation and installing back-up generators in all of its key properties in light of rolling power cuts that have resulted in increased cost of doing business.
Zimbabwe is currently facing acute power outages, which stretch for as long as 12-16 hours a day.
This is resultantly hurting the business community, as they have been pushed to use solar systems and diesel generators to power their operations.
“For about three years, we have been adopting a sustainable approach to business so even before the power cuts became more exacerbated, we had started exploring solar generation and also installing back-up generators in all our key properties,” group chairman, Addington Chinake, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Innscor Africa employee share trust dividend handover ceremony.
Addington Chinake, the group’s chairman
“For example, we have a set of standard generators. So, we have a generator that we run, and when it reaches its recommended hours, another generator kicks in and then the third one, but obviously, it increases the cost of running a business.”
Chinake added that using solar and generators for power is not the best way to run sensitive factory equipment, and he hopes that a solution to the power shortages can be found sooner than later.
The group paid out its first employee share trust US dollar dividend post the reintroduction of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2019.
The employee trust was established in December 2013 to make provisions for the welfare, advancement, general improvement and empowerment of the employees.
According to Chinake, the trust’s dividend pay-outs have grown in line with the company’s profitability.
“Since 2015, the trust has paid out an estimated US$3 million in dividends. The amount has steadily risen to a record US$453 588 in the year to June 2022 from US$236 652 in 2019, an increase of 189 percent.
“In the past financial year, we had a dividend yield of four percent, which points to healthy growth for the business,” he said.
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