07 May 2019

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Ms Bogolo Kenewendo, has called for removal of impediments to  facilitate promotion of investment as well as development of sustainable industries and trade.

Speaking at a Metlhala ya Khumo workshop in Tsabong on May 4, Ms Kenewendo said government was committed to the ease of doing business in Botswana

She said it was her ministry’s mandate to provide expert advise and guidance on how best Batswana could create wealth to improve their lives.

She said to execute the ministry’s mandate, they had been on an extensive drive to improve their offerings thus requiring the ministry to refocus with the aim of improving service delivery.

Therefore, Ms Kenewendo said, the ministry had made noticeable additions and changes in the past year and they included development and implementation of an apex model.

The objective of the model, she said, was to ensure a more coordinated approach towards small micro medium enterprise (SMME) development, investment promotion and export development, emphatically pointing out that these were key focus areas, which would ensure achievement of economic diversification as well as growth.

Minister Kenewendo said there was need to focus on core deliverables to the national strategy, adding they recognised the need to improve doing business which challenged them to adopt the Doing Business Reforms Roadmap in 2015.

Therefore, she said, such a move led to the approval of legislations such as the Companies Registration Act, Companies Amendment Act, Registration of Business Names Amendment Act and the Re-registration of Business Act. 

Furthermore, Ms Kenewendo said her ministry would in the winter Parliament sitting table consideration of the revised Trade and Industrial Development Act, among others.

She noted that such legislative reviews were intended to ease licensing and establishment of businesses.

To further establish the ease of doing business, she said, through the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) the ministry would start an online business registration platform that would go live next month.

The move, according to Ms Kenewendo, would ascertain that all Batswana regardless of where they were, could access CIPA services hence widening the national footprint.

She said her ministry further refined the process of registering a business in Botswana and length of time it takes. 

“We have come up with end to end pipeline of starting a business, which starts with reservation of a business name to the registration of employees for workplace injury insurance of which the entire process takes 48 days at the total of P500 and more or less than P50 without an engagement of an agent,” she said

In an effort to assist SMMEs, she noted that her ministry established strategic partnerships with the private sector and international organisations such as Alibaba Foundation and the Tony Elemelu Foundation.

Through Alibaba Foundation Botswana has been listed as one of the countries to participate in the e-founders fellowship alongside four other countries that would give immeasurable exposure and knowledge to the country based e-commerce and digital businesses, she said.

She said the Elemelu Foundation on the other hand has reserved 40 places Botswana entrepreneurs in their program, adding these were just “tip of the iceberg” to the opportunities they continue to identify for Botswana SMMEs.

Furthermore, she said her ministry was collaborating with Botswana based commercial banks as Barclays, First National Bank of Botswana as well as Stanbic Bank to further open opportunities for SMMEs focused on creating a favourable environment for optimum output. 

Her ministry through Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) had availed a substantial amount of P5million that would be used for pre-project funding to support business start-ups with high impact and to ensure existing ones survive an initiative being implemented in the second quarter of 2019, she said.  Ends