10 Sep 2015

Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) chief executive officer, Mr Thabo Thamane, says there is still room for investment in education, property and agro-tourism in Chobe.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting in Kasane on Monday, Mr Thamane said these areas remained unexplored. “There is a market for pre-schools and private schools in the area,” he noted. 

Kasane has one private primary school, which is the only one in the district. He said the property industry was also ripe for investment as they recently opened a CEDA branch in Kasane and have had a difficult time finding office space as rentals were too high. 

Mr Thamane said the demand for residential space had also gone up with the commencement of the Kazungula Bridge.

The CEDA boss highlighted that a total of P111 million had been invested in businesses operating in Chobe by CEDA. 

He said of this amount, P59 million had been invested in the agriculture sector while property and manufacturing stood at P12 million, which he said left a lot of room for further investment. He advised Chobe residents to utilise the new CEDA office to spur economic growth and create employment. 

Previously, Chobe was served by CEDA through the Francistown office.

Mr Thamane, however, noted that their data indicated that people in Chobe were not entrepreneurially active and this was especially true with women and the youth.

The Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Sadique Kebonang, decried lack of utilization of government programmes.

“I am worried that Batswana are not using these opportunities to open their own businesses hence foreigners continue to thrive in industries where Batswana could be,” he noted. He said as a result of this observation, he had embarked in a country-wide consultation to sell services under his ministry to Batswana.

In her briefing, Kgosi Kebogopole Morake of Plateau ward told the assistant minister that small businesses in the informal sector such as selling of second hand apparel (commonly known as Salaula) were common in the area, though largely unregistered and undocumented.

A resident, Mr Sangwana Sangwana complained about high taxes at the border for people who traded in Salaula, saying that this made the business unprofitable

Another resident, Ms Bontle Molema, said while some of them were passionate and qualified in early childhood development, they were often disadvantaged in investing in this sector due to land shortage.“In the end, those who are given these businesses are at an advantage just because they have the land but have no qualifications,” she said.

Chobe Member of Parliament (MP), Mr Ronald Shamukuni reminded residents that they lived in an area, which was rich in investment opportunities and urged them to make use of the new CEDA office in order to control the economy of the district. Ends