28 Jun 2018

Capacity building for exporters’ seminar creates a platform for companies to share information and experiences with various stakeholders.

BNPC had recently hosted a seminar where eight Botswana companies involved in the export readiness project with the help of Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) participated.

Addressing participants, says Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) executive director, Mr Baeti Molake said they decided to hold such seminars because they recognise that productivity improvement journeys can be very long and lonely more so that results don’t come easily, hence the need to take stock’.

He added that such seminars also contributed to the success of businesses.

“Quite often start-ups don’t live up to five years and we are hoping that through this exercise, businesses and stakeholders can see that there is support out there to assist new start-ups,” he said.

He indicated that the export readiness project concludes this year and thus thanked participating companies that had stayed the course, assuring them of benefits from the project. 

The seminar was held for the second time this year.

“All that we are doing at BNPC is to capacitate businesses and assist them to improve their production processes with the hope that they will be able to produce more and also improve on the quality of their products,” he said, further adding they would also help companies to obtain ISO certification.

Meanwhile, Mr Baeti assured companies involved in export readiness project that they would do their best to make sure that they were ready before the project concluded this year.

Companies involved with the export readiness project include White Angels, Lithoflex, Power Engineering, Sebube, General Packaging Industries, TechnoFeeds, Solar Power and Western Apparels.

BNPC project manager, Mr Poloko Thobega said some of the interventions implemented with the companies included quality management systems (ISO 9001:2015) which involved development of processes, certification readiness and certification audit.

BITC export development director, Mr Obert Yuyi said Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo, had recently set up three apexes through which the ministry was looking to deliver on its mandate.

“These are exciting times for Botswana and parastatals that are under MITI. 

She has laid out her roadmap and she will be concentrating on small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs), investment promotion (domestic and foreign) and export development,” Mr Yuyi said.

The export development apex, he said was relevant to what the BITC was doing, particularly because of the Botswana Exporter Development Programme (BEDP).

He noted that if BEDP was put at the centre of all the apexes Minister Kenewendo spoke of, transformation would be felt.

He also noted that there was another programme from BITC in supplier development, which he said would enhance efforts to grow the SMME sector.

Thus, he encouraged businesses to utilise services, programmes and products offered by BITC to grow and reach beyond borders.

“Our population is two million and it is not ideal to sustain all the businesses we have in Botswana, we have no choice but to export,” he said. ENDS