Zambia Catholic University

Faculty of Business Administration

Department of Business Administration

Daimon C.K Mwendela

100-001 EVD
BBA 450

Assignment 1
A story of an Entrepreneur in my community.

This is a story about Lubuto Mapalo a hard working young man who shares Lusaka City
with two million other residents, Lubuto wakes up early in the morning, looking for new
contacts and investments to help support and grow his bio-fuel company. Everyday is a new
opportunity to meet the challenges of keeping a bio-fuel business alive. Such is the life of a
young entrepreneur in Lusaka town.

Lubuto Mapalo is 28 years old, but he started his business in 2006 when he was only 21
years old after being inspired by a TV documentary on renewable energy in Brazil. He had
to put the ideas on hold for a while to work as an aircraft technician at Zambian Airways
Limited. However, Zambian Airways went out of business and his interest were re-candled
back to the bio-fuel idea. His alternatives were few, as formal, decent employment
opportunities are hard to come by in Zambia, more especially in the capital city of Lusaka .
In fact, a vast majority of young workers are in the informal economy.

He persuaded his father to partner with him in the bio-fuel idea by setting up a small scale
bio-fuel production plant at his fathers family farm in Chalala area, the idea was to start
producing bio-fuel products from locally available seeds that contain oils and by collecting
waste cooking oil. Most of the oil processing equipment was either bought second hand or
metal fabricated by hand on the farm. A business was formally registered with the Patents
and Companies Registration Agency - Zambia (PACRA) in Lusaka and a name which was
cleared was Bio Zed Oil Industrials Limited even though the name he would have wanted
was Bio Zambian Oil Industrials Limited. Bio Zed Oil Industrials Limited was born,
initially production and distribution was slow. He could only manage to bring on board
three part-time employees. Bio-fuel production being a new innovative business in Zambia,
Lubuto Mapalo faced several challenges in controlling his operations. It was hard for him to
compete with the established big oil marketing companies selling fossil fuels on the
Zambian market. It was also difficult to find the raw materials he needed. At first, he
collected waste cooking oil from restaurants, hotels and lodges to recycle into bio diesel and
natural soap, but this over time started coming in short supply and he learnt that waste oil
was often sold to low income households which was a major health hazard.

Lubuto Mapalo submitted a health hazard warning proposal to Lusaka City Council about
the dangers of low income households in using waste oil, this pushed the local Council to
come up with a by-law that made it a crime to sell waste oil to low income households and
implement the ban on the irresponsible disposal of used cooking oil, and by only authorising
registered entrepreneurs handle the waste oil. This created an opportunity for Bio Zed Oil
Industrials Limited to properly dispose off it through renewable energy, which in turn ended
up being a good green service to the community, as well as help his business propel to new
heights. With the abundant raw materials at his disposal, Lubuto Mapalo C.E.O of Bio Zed
Oil Industrials Limited was able to compete with the big oil producers selling fossil fuels in
Zambia. Lubuto now employs over five hundred full time workers, producing soap,
biodiesel and ethanol which are sold in large volumes to the local market.

Lubuto Mapalo has managed to complete an MBA in Entrepreneurship at the University of

Zambia (UNZA) which greatly assisted him in terms of developing entrepreneurship skills
and understanding how to run a successful enterprise. It has also provided ideas on
developing contacts and building partnerships to access funding to help grow his bio-fuel
business venture.

His future plans and ambition is for him to buy land on which he would grow castor beans
and Jathropa tree then produce bio-fuels, this will create jobs for more young people and
help the Zambian economy. He has also partnered with a friend in a mushroom growing and
production business which is also complimenting with his bio-fuel business .

This is a story of Lubuto Mapalo founder and C.E.O of Bio Zed Fuel Industrials Limited a
young Entrepreneur in my community.

The End