26 Jul 2018

Botswana Savings Bank (BSB) Francistown branch manager, Mr Maxwell Masuku has lauded the micro-medium business owners for being central to the growth of many countries’ economies.

Mr Masuku, who was the guest speaker at a mini-show hosted by the City of Francistown Council’s Social Welfare and Community Development (S&CD) Department, said whilst small in nature, small businesses added value to the livelihoods of many around the country, hence improving the economic standards of the people.

He praised the city council S&CD office for hosting such a show every year to help small business owners to showcase their products.

“The social welfare office is known to fund poverty eradication initiatives, engage such beneficiaries in capacity building and business management in order to ensure their sustainability and that should be commended,” Mr Masuku said.

Mr Masuku said his bank’ strategy included partnering with BotswanaPost to ensure their services reach far-flung areas, where many small business owners are found to ensure they have secure facilities to bank their proceeds.

He encouraged those with business talents to invest in them and improve their lives, and further advised business owners that owning a business was like having a baby, in that one should ensure its healthy growth and not stagnation.

Giving her welcome remarks earlier, the city mayor Ms Sylvia Muzila stated that the city council has a good working relationship with small business owners and that the mini-expo was good in that it helped entrepreneurs to market their products and network with others.

“But I still encourage many of you to market your business vigorously so that you may be known because many of us do not know where to access you. We also encourage you to pester us regularly when some of the things that affect you are not done accordingly. Our offices are always open,” she said.

Apart from stalls by organisations such as Citizen Entrepreneurship Development Agency, Local Enterprise Authority, Companies and Intellectual Property Authority, Gender Affairs and BSB, there was an award ceremony for entrants who participated at the exhibition.

One of the adjudicators of the exhibition, Ms Lebani Juta from the Selibe Phikwe Town Council noted irregularities in the way some exhibitors delivered their products for the competition.

She noted that despite the small hiccups in their judgement, overall the participants had shown passion in their works.

Giving an overview of the mini-show, the chief social and community development officer, Ms Membe Makonya stated that the mini-expo supporting micro-medium businesses in the city had been running for many years now.

The day, she said, was often held for two days, the first day being the exhibition competition by small businesses and the second day being a market day for those businesses.

Some of the products shown at the market day included products on sewing, bead-work, leather works, packaged food like jam, chairs using recycled tyres and vegetables from the council-owned garden .

“The good news about our garden is that it is solely tendered for by social welfare and community development beneficiaries,” Ms Makonya revealed.

This year, however, they recorded a small number of participants as many of them stated that they were not yet prepared to showcase their products. ENDS