Can You Monetise Ignorance?

By Trevor Ncube

Monetisation is the new buzzword in Zimbabwe. The saying goes: do not waste your time and resources on what you cannot monetise. Very true. But can you monetise ignorance? Can you monetise missed opportunities? Can you monetise standing still while the world sprints past you?

These are not rhetorical questions. They are survival questions.

Last week, I published a piece on AllThingsZimbabwe titled "They Watched Us Drown. Now the Flood is Coming for Them." In it, I drew on two decades of watching digital disruption gut newsrooms, collapse revenue models, and scatter careers to issue a blunt warning to Zimbabwe's banking, insurance, legal, and accounting sectors: the same flood that drowned media is now at your front door.

The numbers are staggering. When Anthropic released AI automation tools targeting legal, financial, and data analysis work, US$285 billion in market value vanished in a single trading day. Thomson Reuters crashed by over 20 per cent. Wealth management stocks tumbled. Microsoft's AI chief said lawyers, accountants, and project managers will see most of their tasks fully automated within 12 to 18 months. Spotify's best developers have not written a single line of code since December.

Yet in boardrooms across Harare, the prevailing response remains denial. "AI is a first-world problem." "Our low internet penetration will protect us." I have heard these arguments before. They are the same arguments newspaper executives made about the internet in 2005. Every year they spent denying was a year they could have spent adapting. By the time reality hit, it was too late.

AI disruption does not require local AI development. It requires only that your clients have alternatives. The disruption is imported through the internet, the same way it was imported into our newsrooms.

This is why #ThinkTank26 exists.

On February 26, 2026, Trevor & Associates convenes a one-day, high-level strategic forum in Harare for business leaders who refuse to be passengers in their own disruption. This is not another conference. There are no delegate bags and no PowerPoints to sleep through. This is a room of destiny shapers — people who understand that the distance between relevance and obsolescence has never been shorter.

The calibre of minds in that room tells the story.

Terrance Taylor, one of Africa's leading AI and finance experts, will unpack how artificial intelligence is reshaping financial services across the continent — and what Zimbabwean institutions must do now, not next quarter, but now. Dr Jimmy Muchechetere, a London-based banker, medical doctor, and ESG expert with Investec, brings insights at the intersection of global finance, governance, and sustainability — where the next wave of competitive advantage will be built or lost. Anesu Daka, a leading accountant and institution builder, will address how professional services firms can future-proof themselves before automation renders their traditional models unrecognisable.

Thebe Ikalafeng, Founder and CEO of Brand Africa, will challenge leaders to rethink how they build and protect brands in an era of fragmented attention and eroded trust. Janah Ncube, a governance and leadership expert, will tackle how boards and executives must evolve their thinking and decision-making to navigate radical uncertainty.

Then there is Memory Nguwi — an industrial psychologist who taught himself AI and coding mid-career. His story demolishes every excuse about age, background, and access. If Memory can retool himself, so can you. He will share how.

Here is the uncomfortable truth: Zimbabwean companies are battling one of the most hostile economic environments on the continent. Currency instability. Policy uncertainty. Shrinking margins. But layered on top of all this is a global technological revolution that does not care about your operating environment. It does not care about your excuses. It only cares about whether you are ready.

In this environment, ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance is bankruptcy. Ignorance is irrelevance. And you cannot monetise either.

What you can monetise is knowledge. Foresight. The connections built in a room full of people equally determined to learn, relearn, and unlearn. The insight that comes from asking Africa's leading AI finance expert the questions keeping you up at night.

This is an exclusive, premier event. None of the content will be available for free online or on YouTube. If you are not in the room, you miss it. Period.

Register at [https://www.trevorandassociates.com/event-details/think-tank-2026] and secure your place.

Because in this new world, you can only monetise what you know.

Trevor Ncube is the Founder and Managing Partner of Trevor & Associates and Chairman of Alpha Media Holdings.