11 Mar 2019

Ina Lebe, a local company based in Pilane takes pride in engraving products and personalising gifts, giving satisfactory services to its valuable clientele.

Account executive at Ina Lebe, Ms Hafsa Arieff said in an interview that their mission was to create accessibility and convenience of personalising gifts for individuals, companies and organisations.

She said they engraved and personalised products from scratch using wood, leather, glass, metal, ceramic and acrylic among others.

Ms Arieff also said their aim was to promote the art of gifting, and to promote personalising gifting through indigenous language (Setswana).

“We are a gift shop that specialises by engraving and personalising gifts while embracing and promoting pride in our African languages, names, cultures, norms, idioms, sayings and arts, among others,” she said.

Ms Arieff further said the company, whose name Ina Lebe, means being proud of what you are and taking pride in who you are, was birthed by Ms Tumelo Mathias, who was funded by Gender Affairs in March 2016.

She said Ms Mathias had passion for gifting and turned it into a business to help and promote the art of giving.

Ms Arieff said their business targeted every individual who wished to personalise their gifts and companies who wished to use their services.

Like any other business, Ms Arieff said they experienced challenges in their business, which they endured in order to make it a success.

She said one of the challenges they met was lack of knowledge in engraving and personalising of gifts, which resulted in their clientele choosing printed gifts which lasted for a short period.

Competition was also a challenge to them as there were with other engraving companies in the country.

Nonetheless, Ina Lebe has made a mark in the creative arts industry and has gained recognition.

Ms Arieff said their customers included organisations such as Brand Botswana, Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Nubian Seed, Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) and BITRI.

Furthermore, Ms Arieff appreciated LEA for the opportunity they had given them as they were based at LEA Pilane incubator and for helping them to access markets.

She said the company would soon open its first shop at Airport Junction Mall in Gaborone for easy access.

She also said they wished to collaborate with other local engraving companies to share knowledge and experience to develop their craft.

Ms Arieff encouraged Batswana to use opportunities given by organisations such as Department of gender affairs and youth departments in order to make a living and employ others. ENDS