Online Reporter
Peter Matika, Senior Reporter
Prominent Bulawayo-based industrialist, Mr Busisa Moyo, has been awarded Honorary Doctorate in Business Leadership at the 31st NUST graduation ceremony currently underway in Bulawayo.
The award, is a milestone recognition of his outstanding business leadership credentials and contribution to the local economy and beyond.
Mr Moyo said he was excited by the accolade, which he regards as a positive reflection on the need to do more for all the organisations he represents across the nation and the region at large.
“It’s a mile marker, I didn’t expect it. But they took notice of what we do and what we have done and we can still do more,” said Mr Moyo, who is the chief executive officer of United Refineries Limited.
In a brief, Nust Vice Chancellor Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said URL’s story is about brands, our people, our passion, our achievements, our challenges, our resolve to never give, our hopes, the lives we touch and our pride as an innovative African company.
“From humble beginnings in the small town of Rusape, Manicaland, Zimbabwe, URL took their first steps as Rusape Oil Limited,” he said.
URL is one of Zimbabwe’s (big four) largest cooking oil refinery after Surface Wilmar Private Limited with a refining capacity of 12,000mt per year from soya bean seed and a combined 9,450mt per year for laundry and bath soaps and a further 30,000mt per year for stock feeds.
The company currently employs 263 full-time employees, along with seasonal workers, depending on the level of production activity, averaging 100 people each month.
It is one of the few manufacturing companies that remains operational at significant capacity utilization levels in the Southern Region of the country.
In addition to branded product lines, URL also produces soya meal and soya bean cake, which are ideal for poultry and pig production as well as soya bean hull (which is high in fiber and ideal for cattle, chicks and mushroom growing). These are by-products of the cooking oil manufacturing processes. Annual production of these by-products is 30,000 tonnes.
URL boasts a replete production facility valued at US$6 million. This plant has the second-largest production capacity in Zimbabwe of 12,000 metric tonnes. The company also has significant storage capacity of up to 18,000 metric tonnes.
