17 Oct 2019

About 89 000 youths are loitering the streets as a result of unemployment, research has revealed.

As a mitigating measure, the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) on Tuesday held an entrepreneurship workshop for small businesses in Jwaneng.

The aim was to impart entrepreneurial skills to residents and business owners as well as raise awareness on the ministry mandate.

Principal cooperatives auditor from the Department for Cooperatives Development, Ms Moiketsa Kelapile, said businesses were the best solution to address such unemployment.

Ms Kelapile said that could only be achieved if such businesses were well established and stable.

She also indicated that Botswana currently produced only 65 000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables annually against 112 000 tonnes required by the local market.

Concerning daily production, she indicated that the country needed an annual 65 million litres of milk, but that the local production stood at a paltry 7.2 million litres, which she said then forced the county to import such products to meet market needs.

That, Ms Kelapile said was tantamount to exporting jobs and thus implored local business to take advantage of such a deficit in supply and preserve jobs locally.

Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) portfolio executive officer, Mr Kitso Ramahobo advised small business owners to market their businesses to the outside world.

That, he said was because they knew their businesses better than anyone else and were therefore the best placed advocates.

“You are the ones that know how much you can supply. We do not want a situation where a government organisation sells you, only to realise that they sold you beyond what you can handle, which will in turn disappoint consumers when they want your service,” he said.

He said government and parastatals would only assist in selling businesses whenever an opportunity arose, but that did not take the onus from owners.

Meanwhile, Jwaneng Town Council principal commercial technician, Mr Samuel Suping said they were concerned about the tendency by some business people, especially hawkers and vendors, who continued to trade despite expiration of their licenses, only to renew them long after they had expired.

That, he said was the same as operating an illegal business.

Also, he expressed concern about some business owners who continued to hold on to licenses after their businesses had collapsed.

“If your business is not making any income we advise you to surrender the license to us, because continuing to hold it will attract fees that will keep accumulating with time,” he said.

Mr Suping also informed the workshop that hawkers and vendors licenses were preserved for citizens, adding it was against the law that some locals allowed some foreigners to use them.

That was in response to some concerns raised by some attendants who indicated that some foreigners, especially in the village of Sese, operated kiosks.

In her welcome remarks, Kgosi Salang Khumalo of Jwaneng said for years, foreigners had been dominating even the small sector businesses reserved for locals, something she said was due to lack of business skills among locals.

Thus, she said entrepreneurship workshops could play a big part in filling such a skills gap, and therefore implored attendants to implement the little they had gained.

The workshop was grace by all departments and parastatals under the trade ministry. ENDS