24 Jul 2019

The mandate of the Special Economic Zones Botswana (SEZA) is to develop and manage operational economic zones, says its Chief Executive Officer Mr Thatayaone Ndzinge.

Mr Ndzinge told a media briefing in Gaborone recently that the parastatal had four zones to prioritise being, phase one which has four special zones of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, Fairgrounds, Lobatse and Pandamatenga and phase two, which consists of Selebi Phikwe with 1020 hectares, Palapye 440 hectares, Francistown 700 hectares and Tuli Block which is under review. 

He said SEZA will focus its immediate efforts on the development of the four zones in phase 1, adding that ‘Each of these zones are currently moving from high level feasibility to extensive master planning and detailed design,’ he said. Mr Ndzinge said 80 per cent of land in the special economic zones would be for manufacturing industries and international services, which would be domestically owned, but international trading would be done to allow for investors, operators and developers.  

He further revealed that some of the target investors were specialist automotive, adding that the country had been sending some students to several countries including Germany as a way of setting up skills within the country, revealing that SEZA had been working with the Botswana Innovation Hub. 

He indicated that manufacturing industries and international services would consistently provide 16 500 jobs within a period of 20 years. 

“Some of the initial targets to manage finances will be those who are already in the region which are mostly banks,” he said. 

Mr Ndzinge further said, they would do a bit of facelift at fairgrounds as the place was already build up, and they were expecting 5000 job opportunities for a budget of P1.2 billion, which was allocated during the NDP 11 budget. 

He said SEZA’s incentives were reduced corporate tax for the first 10 years, zero rated VAT on raw materials, favourable transport duty on land and property. ENDS