Msafiri Chagama

With over 23 years work experience as a Researcher, Industrial/Production Economist, Marketing Manager, Company CEO and in Business Consulting, Promotion & Training services; he has has initiated and carried out needs assessment, developed curriculum and training manuals for demand driven training courses related to business development for SME operators with an example of his recent assignment to develop tailor made training manuals and facilitating training and on-site coaching for Solar PV business operators for 14 regions of Tanzania in a period of 4 years. Currently, he is a Coordinator and lead business plans Assessors for SEED Investor matching Programme where high potential Tanzanian entrepreneurs are identified, supported in developing strong business plans and linked with investors and financiers. Msafiri was a Judge and Coach in over 10 business planning competitions including the BiD Challenge 2007 organized by University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre & BiD Network; the 2008 Believe Begin Become business plan competition jointly implemented by TechnoServe and the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC); the Business Development Gateway (BDG) Business Plan competition organized and run by Tanzania Private Sector Foundation in 2009 and the DARECHA 2009 Business Plan competition for Young Entrepreneurs. He was also fully involved for over a year in developing BDS Products specially tailored to specific private businesses needs of highly regulated sectors especially Education and Health sectors.

Sectors involved included energy, timber and wood industries; health sector; private education; real estates; mining; agriculture productions, value addition and marketing; insurance, and private health enterprises.

EXPERINCE IN BUSINESS PLAN COMPETITIONS, BUSINESS PLAN ASSESSMENTS AND COACHING

Mr. Chagama has extensive experience in development and management of business plan competitions having being involved in running and supporting of over ten business plan competitions before and while working with University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC). He is a Coordinator and lead business plans Assessors for SEED Investor matching Programme since March 2009, a program where high potential Tanzanian entrepreneurs are identified, supported in developing strong business plans and linked with investors and financiers.

Mr. Chagama was not only a Judge and Coach in over 10 business planning competitions but also was involved in coordination and developing and implementation of local promotion strategies for business challenges including; Access to Clean Challenge 2009, Women in Business Challenge 2009, Farmers in Business Challenge – Agriterra 2009, Women in Business Challenge 2010 and Farmers in Business 2010.

Mr. Chagama was involved in development of the Business Plan Competition and specifically, was a Lead Consultants for the Inclusive Wood Industry Business Challenge Tanzania 2011 that was managed by UDEC and using BiD Network of the Netherland web based platform for plan submission, assessment, coaching and management. Was a Challenge Coordinator and Training Facilitator involved in development of the Business Plan Competition proposal and work plan, soliciting for sponsorship/contracts, designing and developing promotional strategies, development of competition working documents, business plans submission & communication platform, templates, forms, and guidelines, for plan application, assessment, web information and judging work. He was directly involved in designing training program including training modules, materials, training coordination and facilitating in 4 training programs including 3 in Business Planning and one in Access to Financing and Investment Options. He was also involved in recruitment and training of assessors and coaches to support entrepreneurs to develop good business plans; organizing business plans assessment/jury sessions and preparations of all expenditure retirements and Challenge reporting.

As Investors Match-Maker at SEED, Dar es Salaam, Mr. Chagama responsibilities include development and implementing strategies for sourcing of business plans with high growth potential, mentoring potential applicants to the program and those who have already submitted business plans for Investors matching, advise entrepreneurs/applicants on aspects that need improvements in their plans, advise the entrepreneurs/applicants on possible sources of support in developing their plans, recruitment and training of consultants who assist in screening or providing coaching to the entrepreneurs applying for match-making, organizing plan assessments sessions, market the initiative to individual entrepreneurs and their networks, organize events for presentations and make presentation about the match-making program..

OTHER KEY EXPERIENCE
Until recently, Msafiri was the first Incubator Manager for University of Dar Es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC) Business Development Services Incubator. His key responsibilities was managing UDEC Business Development Services (BDS) Incubator at the University of Dar es Salaam with 18 Incubatees in full and virtual incubation programs and was involved in providing the program services including counseling and advice to participating BDS Providers/companies/Business Consultants; organizing support programs including training workshops; was responsible in providing direction and leadership, with monitoring and evaluation of the Incubator to ensure sustainability of the program and achieve implementation of the strategic goals and objectives of the incubator; and more important, he developed measures and tools to monitor the activities of each registered firm/incubatee continuously.