01 May 2017

Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Biggie Butale recently toured the Matsiloje Portland Cement factory to appreciate the challenges they were currently facing.

The company is experiencing challenges of low demand of their supplies around the country.

He noted that there was an oversupply of cement in Botswana from the neighbouring countries, especially Namibia.

Mr Butale said they were going to request departments such as Botswana Housing Corporation and programmes such as Economic Stimulus Programme to encourage the buying of local cement in their tenders.

He further said his hope was that the factory does not close down as that would result in job losses.

He also encouraged Batswana to buy local products as this translated into maintaining economic livelihoods in the country.

For his part, managing director of Matsiloje Portland Cement, Mr Ranchit Josh explained that the demand for their product had fallen, which threatened the future of the factory.

Mr Josh noted that the large imports of foreign cement also contributed to the low demand.

Consequently, he encouraged government and companies to use locally manufactured cement because without their support, business might be forced to close. ENDS