Divine Ndhlukula is the founder and Managing Director of DDNS Security Operations (Pvt) Ltd. t/a SECURICO, a business involved in guarding, electronic security systems, renewable energy solutions, and cash management solutions that are expanding in the region.
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1960
Born (Zimbabwe)
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1992
Enrolls in an entrepreneurial development program
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1999
Founds SECURICO Security Services
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2008
Acquires MULTI-LINK (PVT) LTD
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2011
SECURICO wins Legatum Africa Award for Entrepreneurship
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2014
Wins the EY World Entrepreneurship Awards Exceptional category and selected as Top 3 Global Women in Business by UNCTAD
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2016
Conferred with PhD in Business Leadership by Women’s University in Africa
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2019
Wins the Forbes Africa Businesswoman of the Year
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2021
Inducted into the Global Business Hall of Fame
From humble beginnings, Divine founded SECURICO Security Services in 1999. She started off with four employees, and the company has now grown to over 4,000. Through hard work, determination, and focus, Divine has built the company to become the most respected and sought-after players in the security industry. Her company is also the first Zimbabwean security company to be certified to the internationally acclaimed ISO Quality Management Systems.
Divine has worked for ZBC, Old Mutual, and Intermarket Life Assurance Company, which she left to start SECURICO in 1999. “The business idea was after the realization of a gap that I had noted in the market for a service and quality-oriented security services provider,” she said.
Divine has always had the drive to be an entrepreneur and is a strong role model for JA. “Let me say that right from a tender age, I had always told myself and everyone that I was going to start and run my own business, which I always envisioned as a large business. I enrolled in an entrepreneurial development program in 1995 and this sharpened my entrepreneurial competencies. I learned elements like opportunity seeking, goal setting, business planning, networking, and more.”
Divine encourages women and young people to become entrepreneurs and has been recognized by Forbes as one of the most successful women in Africa.
Her leadership excellence has been recognized by the corporate fraternity as evidenced by the numerous business accolades she has won, Empretec Entrepreneur of Decade (Services Sector) in 2002; Manager of the Year in 2005 for Zimbabwe Institute of Management; Institute of Directors Zimbabwe Director of the Year (SMEs) in 2008; and the Zimbabwe Women Filmmakers/UNIFEM Business Award in 2010; Empretec – one of the most Influential Businesspeople Post Independence Zimbabwe in 2012; UNCTAD Top Ten Global Women in Business in 2014; EY World Entrepreneur Award in the Exceptional Category, in 2014; Private Sector Leader of Year by Zimbabwe Institute of Management in 2016; Recognised as one of the Top 100 Women CEOs in Africa in 2019; and Forbes Africa Businesswoman for 2019.
Through her leadership, SECURICO has also been recognized in numerous awards and in 2011 beat 3,400 other companies in Africa to win the coveted Grand prize of the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship by Legatum and Omidyar. In addition, the company has received the following accolades
Companies to Inspire Africa 2019 by London Stock Exchange
Zimbabwe’s Top Ten Best Employers in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019
Super-brand of the Year 2012–2020 (Security Sector)
SQAM/SADC Quality Awards – Company of the Year 2012
She founded Zvikomborero Farms, an integrated agricultural company involved in livestock. The business is in the process of scaling to become one of the best centers of livestock production in the country, creating much-needed jobs, working in partnership with development partners in various programs to transform the smallholder farming sector.
Looking ahead, the plan is to intensify her efforts in the agricultural space due to its immense business and socio-economic potential, particularly, the opportunity to turn many smallholder peasant farmers into productive commercial farmers through various business models and contractual arrangements, integrating along the whole value chain as a sustainable business model.
As a sought out speaker, she has traversed the global breath on international assignments, sharing her amazing entrepreneurial journey, not for her sake anymore, but for what this has and is doing to many young and mature women of Africa. This has made Zimbabweans hold their own in a world that sees more negatives than positives on this nation.
Dr. Divine has been appointed to board membership, directorship, chairmanship, and leadership capacities in several key and national strategic institutions and commissions in Zimbabwe.
“I thought there was a gap in the industry. Companies that were there were not living up to the needs of the clients. The industry was renowned for wild cat strikes and guards generally were perceived as the lowly-paid in any sector. I wanted to change the perceptions and create a niche in which people could carve out a career and I knew I needed to go in with a different approach and that approach was going to make the difference, the people had to be key or central feature of the vision.”
BBC News – African Dream: Zimbabwe's Divine Ndhlukula
A Global Force for Good
A champion of women's economic empowerment, Divine has founded and is very involved with several initiatives that support women and young people to realize their dreams and scale their enterprises. She is a role model who has been encouraging women and young people to become entrepreneurs.
Through her conscious and deliberate efforts, women are now accepted in the security sector with her company employing more than 900 women, arguably the largest employer of women in Zimbabwe outside civil service. She is the founder of the Mentorship in Practice program, Woman Owned Brand initiative, an offshoot of the Women in Enterprise Conference and Awards platform which she started in 2013 to help women scale up their businesses.
She became the first SADC member of the global Women Presidents Organization. She is the Past President of Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce and current President of the Professional Women, Executives and Business Women's Forum (PROWEB). Divine gains more satisfaction from how her efforts have made a huge difference in other women’s lives; and not so much from the profits her business has made in over the past 21 years.