08 Nov 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama says P13.93 billion or 52 per cent of total procurement amount has been used to secure goods from local manufacturers and service providers through Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) over the last six years.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on November 6, President Khama said implementation of EDD medium to long term strategy for incubating local production has continued to focus on the leather, dairy and textile sub-sector strategies.

He said government’s support for dairy production was evidenced by allocation of land to farmers which had been accompanied by an increase in milk production.

President Khama said as of March 2017, local production stood at 6 million litres or about 10 per cent of annual national milk demand, meaning that ‘there is further opportunity for local producers.’

The President further said 100 enterprises had benefited from the Private Sector Development Programme, a programme which had been implemented by the government in partnership with the European Union to address enterprise capacity constraints. ENDS