29 Aug 2018

The Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency’s (CEDA)’s Mabogo Dinku initiative is said to be bearing fruit. The agency’s chief operating officer (COO), Mr Andrew Madeswi told a Francistown City Council (FCC) meeting on Tuesday that the programme targeted small business owners who wanted to expand their businesses.

The initiative, he said, was easily accessible and popular because it required no business plan but an existing micro-medium business.

“The programme has so far proved to be a huge success because beneficiaries are paying back the money loaned to them in ways we had never seen before.

Currently, we have received 130 per cent of all borrowings, 30 per cent more than what we anticipated,” he noted.

Mr Madeswi said they had loaned small businesses P11.7 million thus far and were happy that there was more than P2 million saved by the businesses. “We encourage more savings by small businesses, hence we have kept track of how much these businesses that have benefited from Mabogo Dinku saved,” he said.

He informed the council meeting that CEDA was happy that more women were benefitting from the initiative at an 85 per cent margin, and that only 35 per cent of youth had so far accessed the programme.

In the City of Francistown, he said, the programme had benefited 140 people with P1.2 million which represents only 10 per cent of the total spent so far.

For one to access Mabogo Dinku, he said, they have to be earning less than P2 000 monthly and be in a group of between five to 15 people. The applicant would then be put on a rigorous business training for three to six weeks before being granted the money to upgrade their small business.

On other issues, Mr Madeswi said CEDA has assisted more than 1 041 businesses in Botswana to the tune of P574 million. He added that they created 2 635 jobs, 319 of which went to the youth.

He said of the P574 million allocated, P54 million went to youth owned businesses and that in Francistown, only 36 businesses have been funded to the tune of P36 million while only P1.3 million from that went to funding youth owned businesses.

He opined that the number of CEDA beneficiaries in Francistown was not satisfactory at only six per cent of all national funding.Francistown councillors applauded the Mabogo Dinku programme, saying it would uplift many lives.

Councillor for Monarch North, Mr Godfrey Kaelo, however, called for more focus on agricultural projects, arguing that the agricultural sector was lagging behind in contributing to the mainstream economy. ENDS