12 Oct 2015

The Ghanzi District Council has resolved to form an investment arm in the form of Ghanzi Economic Funding Company (GEFCO) to reduce reliance on local government. 

In a recent interview, the council chairman, Mr Thato Tshweneyagae, said plans were in place and all left for them was to hire a chief executive officer. 

The company would spearhead development of a recreational park that has already been funded by First National Bank of Botswana (FNBB) to the tune of P2.8 million with P1.6 million already spent on Gabana consultancy. 

The recreational park would operate commercially with amenities that will include a picnic area, play ground, swimming pool and many others. 

GEFCO wouldl also be engaged in other high impact investment areas, which include a multi processing meat abattoir, olive production fields, a truck inn as well as a guest house in Charlesshill. Tshweneyagae stated that the council had 200 hectors of land for the proposed abattoir, and they had received a draft memorandum of understanding with Botswana Meat Commission on the proposed abattoir. 

‘It is only fitting that as the largest beef producing  district in the country we have an abattoir in our backyard and I can assure you it’s one thing our famers in the district are looking forward to. 

With Botswana’s dry port just a few hundred kilometers away in Walvis bay in Namibia it only make more business sense to have an abattoir here for fast and convenient dispatch of our meat products’ he said.   

Tshweneyagae further stated that the council had 220 hectors of land and their wish was to engage communities with idle land to lease to the council for the olive production project they wish to undertake with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the Israeli government. He further stated that earlier this year with the help of the Israeli government, the Ministry of Agriculture undertook a project of ploughing different kinds of crops in Ghanzi, a project he said was successful. 

“Look Israel has the same weather and land conditions as our region yet they are producing high yields of crops so we are looking into learning how they manage, hence their involvement”, Tshweneyagae said.

When quizzed on whether some of the projects they wished to undertake were not better left for citizens to undertake, Mr Tshweneyagae said they were not out to get a slice of what might seem like was best for citizens, adding that the council wanted to be seen to be leading in taking initiative in doing rather than waiting to be spoon-fed by the government. Ends