11 Feb 2016

Molepolole business community has complained that the village’s proximity to the capital city disadvantages many businesses in the locality.

This came about during the budget review session which was organised by Business Botswana in Molepolole on Tuesday.

They said the fact that most services concerning business registration were found in Gaborone has, on its own, impacted negatively on start-up businesses as the registration process takes long.

Another worrisome trend the local entrepreneurs had cited is that their businesses were disadvantaged by businesses from Gaborone and they end up taking a smaller share of the cake where district spending was concerned.

Furthermore, they said Molepolole, while being the third largest populous area in the country, was lagging behind in developments and services resulting in a not so conducive environment for businesses to thrive.

Commenting on the budget, the business community noted that the government usually allocates a lion’s share of the budget to the Ministry of Education and Skills Development. However, they said the government does not get value for money from the same funds.

They also called on the government to diversify the economy by boosting ministries such as that of agriculture, trade and industry, youth, sport and culture, saying they have the potential to grow the economy.

They further said in order for the government to achieve good results in the coming financial year, it must ensure that implementation was done efficiently and that issues of corruption were reduced.

Commenting on the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), some business persons said they were worried that the budget does not have set targets for the number of jobs that were going to be created.
On the other hand, youth business owners complained that the set deadline for ESP construction projects was short, and that projects earmarked for Kweneng District were small.

Giving an overall assessment of the budget, senior lecturer at the University of Botswana, Mr Obonye Galebotswe said the budget was positive and likely to spur economic activity and raise expectations in the short-run, medium and long-term.

He also noted that energy and water supply challenges have been a major drag on economic activity, and that once fixed, there would be significant progress. Ends