28 Feb 2018

Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) chief executive officer, Dr Racious Moatshe says participatory planning requires involvement of stakeholders to identify concerns, values and develop a broad consensus on planned initiatives.

Speaking during a LEA workshop in Gaborone on February 26, Dr Moatshe said the approach  was also about utilising the vast amount of information and knowledge that stakeholders held to find workable, efficient and sustainable solutions.

He stated that stakeholders played a central role in setting priorities and objectives of an organisation’s initiatives in order to ensure relevance and appropriateness.

He said it was important that all stakeholders were involved in the development of projects and not just as direct beneficiaries of an initiative.
 

“Local Enterprise Authority has been mandated to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship and develop SMMEs in Botswana. One way to achieve this, is through stakeholder collaboration,” he said.

He said it was through collaboration that LEA was empowered and motivated to build sustainable businesses and thereby, diversify the economy of Botswana.
Dr Moatshe stated that Kutla Incubation Centre challenged all to think outside the box and standardise to ensure that they produced goods that were affordable in the market.

He said the facilities with technology development, business-related development, financing arrangements and other relevant components and support services would play a pertinent role to facilitate and motivate the creation and growth of small enterprises.

For his part, LEA director of Innovation and Sector Support, Mr Lesitamang Paya said he was grateful to meet with stakeholders to come up with strategic plan for future collaborations towards the realisation of successful SMMEs.

He mentioned the workshop would provide a platform for discussion about the operations of Kutla Incubation thus requesting for support to enhance chances of success for Kutla graduates.

He said soliciting support on funding, standards and regulations, quality assurance and access to the market was the way to go.
 

“For the success of an initiative, it is important to know whether and how a stakeholder can take action, how he/she can be involved, and how much capacity he/she has to contribute. Concerning failures, it is important to know the positive or negative influence a stakeholder has to constrain or even stop an initiative,’’ said Mr Paya.

Kutla Incubation Centre is the fifth incubator under the custodianship of LEA and the project was conceptualised in 2014 as an ideal platform to incubate trainees for a short period of time, with the view to impart practical, technical and business management skills. Ends