The Young Zimbabwean Who Changed his Fortunes

Zimbabwean entrepreneur, Paul Makaya – the founder and CEO of Bergast House, a digital solutions company – has been named in the Forbes Africa’s 30 Under 30 list. The list is one of the most-anticipated of young game-changers on the continent. Each year, Forbes Africa looks for resilient self-starters, innovators, entrepreneurs and disruptors who have the acumen to stay the course in their chosen field. The 27-year old Zimbabwean businessman’s budding empire is based on digital design and marketing. His is a story of defying the odds at almost every turn. With just the $200 he had saved up, Makaya and his friends invested it in 2016 and rented a miniature one-room office space that had only two chairs. This was only the beginning of Bergast House, a company that offers strategy, public relations, digital and design services. Bergast House has served over 103 clients including Zuva Petroleum, Astro Mobile, Maranatha Group of Schools, the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe, Tech24, the Chartered Institute of Customer Management, Steward Bank, and the Zimbabwe Agricultural Society, delivering an advertising value of up to $175 million. Makaya has been listed on the Gumiguru 40 Under 30 list of emerging Zimbabwean leaders and in 2019, was selected to be the vice curator of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Harare Hub.

He is also a founding member of the Zimbabwe National Youth Awards, an annual event which seeks to identify, award, celebrate and develop exceptional young Zimbabweans in all sectors of the country’s economy.

Makaya plans to grow the business into countries such as Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Namibia.