06 Jun 2018

Parliament has been informed that the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) will re-open its branch offices in Letlhakane before the end of 2018.  Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Moiseraela Goya said this followed an agreement between CEDA and BotswanaPost  to avail application forms and collect them once completed, adding that the agency had reviewed the portfolio in the area.

He said the decision to close CEDA offices in Letlhakane was taken as a strategic decision in 2010 following a rationalisation exercise which revealed that business volumes could not sustain the branch. He said all customers were transferred and serviced in Palapye as it was the nearest office.

As to whether Botswana Development Corporation (BDC)’s would open offices in Letlhakane, the assistant minister said the nature of BDC’s business model and its focus on commercial and large scale industrial development did not lend itself to a branch structure. He said the corporation did not have plans to open a branch in villages, but would continue to provide all its services from its head office in Gaborone.

He said BDC was open to any funding proposal that satisfied its investment criteria from anywhere in Botswana, including Letlhakane. On the other hand, he said the Letlhakane community was currently serviced by the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) which was based in Serowe.

He said in their efforts to promote investment in the northern part of the country as well as facilitate equitable distribution of investments, Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) intended to open an office in Francistown during quarter three of 2018/19 to promote investment in the northern part of the country, and that it would service both domestic and foreign investors in Letlhakane and surrounding areas.

Mr Goya said BITC would  hold an investor seminar in Letlhakane in August as part of its investment and trade outreach programme, and that the objective was to create awareness on BITC’s mandate and services to the business community in the area.

The MP for Boteti East, Mr Setlhomo Lelatisitswe had asked the minister to state whether CEDA, BITC, LEA and BDC would open offices in Letlhakane, and if so, the minister should state when given the expansion of the Orapa Game Park, the envisioned expansion of Orapa Cut 3 and the mine closure. Ends