12 Mar 2018

Youth development and empowerment is a task that requires a multi-sectoral approach to take the country’s development to greater heights, says the director of Economic Diversification Drive (EDD) unit, Ms Rosinah Bontsi.

Speaking during a mini exhibition for youth manufacturing companies organised by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), she observed that her ministry could not be left out in the realisation of this milestone.

Ms Bontsi revealed that her ministry continued to work persistently to create a conducive environment for the promotion of investment and development of sustainable industries and trade, noting that as such they view the youth as a critical stakeholder in the delivery of their mandate.

The objective of the exhibition was to showcase and promote procurement of locally produced goods and services bringing potential buyers and manufacturers in one place.

Ms Bontsi said through the exhibition, they hoped to create an environment where even youth who were not yet in businesses could see that indeed it was possible. She said high rate of unemployment was a concern and believed that manufacturing businesses at high scale could be a solution to the problem.

The government, she said took locally produced goods and support of local businesses seriously hence the inception of the EDD unit which is a national strategy aimed at accelerating diversification of the economy.

The strategy puts emphasis on increased capacity for non-mineral exports and private sector led growth and promoting and developing local capacity.

Furthermore, Ms Bontsi revealed that the government leveraged on its enormous purchasing power through the use of preference margins to promote production and consumption of locally produced goods and services.

She noted that in order to empower vulnerable groups, government came up with administrative interventions such as the Local Procurement Scheme aimed to give youth, women and people living with disability preference of 20 per cent of all micro procurements. She also cited other opportunities reserved for youth from different ministries.

She pleaded with the business community to fully support youth projects and also encouraged the youth to strengthen their relationship by always engaging each other to nature and build the manufacturing base in Botswana.

The gathering also learnt about enterprise competitiveness programmes such as Tokafalo Enterprise Development Programme which is getting into its first phase.

The main objective of the programme is enterprise development through mentoring and providing advisory services and training to deserving enterprises. 

For his part, Kgosi Babinang Majatsie urged entrepreneurs to demonstrate commitment and hard work in their projects adding that government took a deliberate move to assist them with funding with a hope that they would create employment for others.

He said it was worrisome as some projects collapsed because the beneficiaries had diverted funding to luxury things such as buying expensive cars and other things. Ends