22 Feb 2018

Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) regional manager responsible for productivity in the North and North West, Mr Tshenolo Mapitse has underscored the need for stakeholders to continue playing a key role in making Botswana competitive.

Speaking during a stakeholder meeting in Maun on February 21, Mr Mapitse stressed the importance of interacting time and again to deliberate on what could be done to make the country improve in both productivity and competitiveness.

He said at BNPC, they found it fit to engage stakeholders and share with them the performance of the country in terms of competitiveness and different productivity tools and techniques that could help to enhance business production.

In addition, he said they recognised the importance of productivity and competitiveness as drivers of the economy, hence they encouraged other stakeholders to play their role and contribute meaningfully to make business environment conducive.

Mr Mapitse explained that the country was competing with other countries to attract foreign direct investment, hence the need to address unemployment and improve standards of living.

Failure to improve competitiveness, he said, would mean that potential investors would overlook Botswana and choose other countries.

“Let us share ideas about this important journey of improving the competitiveness of our country.

Remember we can never be competitive as a country without your support as leaders in your own right,” he added.

Mr Mapitse further stressed the importance for organisations to use the information they shared to make positive contributions in their workplaces, adding that last year, they indicated in their report that poor work ethics was the number one problem for doing business in Botswana.

He said it was vital for organisations to come up with interventions and partner with BNPC to turn the country around so that it became a competitive nation. Stakeholders were called to rise to the occasion and engage BNPC to improve productivity and competiveness of the country.

However, some stakeholders appreciated BNPC engagement, but complained that in Maun, poor work ethics remained a major challenge in workplaces.

They said if the employees could be more trained, some issues could be easily addressed.

They also noted lack of resources and slow processes and procedures in hindering efforts towards productivity and eventually breeding corruption practices.

Responding to comments, Information and Research Services manager, Dr Phumzile Thobokwe appreciated that lack of resources was a challenge, but encouraged organisation to see how smart they could work with the little they had at their disposal. She said lack of resources was a challenge, but not prominent as compared to issues of corruption practices.

BNPC acting general manager, Ms Matlho Kgosi urged organisations to benchmark on those doing well as far as productivity was concerned, noting that she once visited one of the camps in the delta and employees provided excellent service.

She also called on leaders to stand up and see how best they could improve work ethics, adding that they knew the situation in their workplaces, hence the need to find strategies to better them.

“If you want to turn around work ethics, you should start with yourselves and hold people accountable to deliver as expected.

There is no one who can come and improve your work ethics be it government or BNPC.

I encouraged you to visit other companies and copy best practices,” she added.

Ms Kgosi also briefed the gathering about her organisation’s role in unlocking productivity potential.

She emphasised the need to improve labour productivity and  diversify the economy to improve global competitiveness. Ends