21 Nov 2016

Local textile and clothing industrialists need to make robust efforts of accessing the United States market through opportunities presented by the Africa Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA).

Under the AGOA agreement, African countries are offered duty free and quota-free market access to US, but there are concerns Botswana has not fully taken advantage of that opportunity.

Addressing an annual general meeting of the Botswana Textile and Clothing Association (BTCA) in Gaborone recently, the Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Biggie Butale outlined that Botswana was offered opportunity to export 6 900 individual products to the US without limit.

He said should the textile industry start exporting each one of those products, many employment opportunities would be created.

“ AGOA has given Botswana 6 900 individual products that we can sell to America, without limit.

If we can take advantage of this and employ 10 people per product, we would create about 7 000 jobs immediately,” Mr Butale said.

Mr Butale said as a labour intensive industry, the textile and clothing sector were identified by government as priority sector that could play a meaningful role in the economic diversification effort and create more employment for both skilled and unskilled workers.

“We have been given a mandate to create 7 000 jobs in the next 12 months and it is a task which we take very seriously and I believe that the textile industry can really provide those numbers in the quickest possible time,” the assistant minister said.

The BTCA president, Mr Shahid Ghafoor stated that the association was formed in 2014 with an objective to drive growth of the textile and clothing industry in Botswana.

He said they aim to increase the market-share of Botswana products, and to nurture the Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMES) through capacity building.

Mr Ghafoor explained that challenges related to high raw material prices were preventing local companies from taking more advantage of opportunities offered by AGOA. He also said shortage of skilled labour within the industry was another challenge threatening their progress.

BTCA executive member, Ms Banusi Mbaakanyi said a strategy was developed that would be used as a roadmap for the growth of the textile and clothing industry.

She said the strategy entailed areas such as entrepreneurship development, skills development, and increase of production capacity, quality control standards and market access. BOPA