28 Nov 2016

Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) programmes officers have urged young people to form cooperatives.
 Addressing Young Aspiring Millionaires Botswana (YAMB) members during a Youth in Cooperatives Workshop in Gaborone recently Mr Wame Kefhetoge and Ms Kagiso Kgope said cooperatives were more advantageous compared to others because they were sustainable.
Ms  Kgope cited cooperatives usually stood the chance of meeting market demand since they could produce more with less capital.
She said cooperatives were needs -based and flexible as well as group -focused adding that such an enterprise was beneficiary-led and managed.
For his part, Mr Wame Kefhetoge urged the youth to make use of LEA resources which were mostly rendered at no cost.
He outlined that these services included business management trainings, business mentoring and marketing as well as business plan design.
He advised aspiring business men and women to always validate their ideas through market research.
Mr Kefhetoge has also put emphasis on proper records keeping from implementation stage which he said was  useful for business analysis.
Another business aspects that he mentioned was manufacturing and branding which he said had to meet set market standards and helps propel products to international markets.
However, he urged the youth to consider necessary skills required for different business operations when opting to set up cooperatives.
Another facilitator, Mr Seno Mokhondo, principal poverty eradication officer for projects from the Office of the President urged youth to venture into businesses in order to create jobs and help government eradicate abject poverty.  ENDS