03 Feb 2020

Lack of serviced land and operational investor incentives are the main challenges for SPEDU to execute its mandate.

This was said by SPEDU CEO, Dr Mokubung Mokububg during a SPEDU briefing to Members of Parliament  in Selebi Phikwe recently.

Dr Mokubung said there had been a delay over the past two years to operationalise the government investor incentives saying ‘companies are waiting to hear that government incentives are operational as they are currently not operational.’

“There is the off take agreement of up to 30 per cent procurement which is still awaiting approval at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,” said Dr Mokubung.

Furthermore, he lamented that the EU Re-employment Account (REA) that was meant to finance all SPEDU projects was still waiting to be reviewed at  finance and economic development ministry.

As a result, Dr Mokubung said the organisation has not done well in terms of reaching its employment targets saying that  in 2017/18   a total of 754 jobs were created against a target of 1560, in 2018/19 a total of 1288 jobs were created against a target of 2360 and 1618 jobs against a target number of 6856 by march 31, 2020.

He said, despite all the challenges,  they had proactively looked for events that could revitalise the town’s economy and bring more activity to the area.

He explained that the events included the Toyota 1000km desert race which would run for 5 years and the Softball Extravaganza, adding that the activities were viable income generating activities.

He said SPEDU was working closely with the Selebi Phikwe town council to resuscitate some agriculture shows.

Dr Mokubung explained that SPEDU focused specifically on three sectors being tourism, manufacturing and agribusiness.

On agribusiness, he shared some projects that were being spearheaded by SPEDU, such as the electrification that was being undertaken as a pilot project along Motloutse River.

He said another project that was coming up was the Citrus Fruit project, which was expected to create 1700 jobs.

With regards to tourism, he said Letsibogo and Dikgathong dams were the green diamonds of the region.

He said according to the master plan for Letsibogo dam, there was supposed to be fencing around the area, lodges, retreat areas, cultural village, outboard and inboard activities and pleaded with MP’s to support Botswana Tourism Organization  when it puts up a proposal of funding to set up infrastructure.

Concerning  manufacturing projects, Dr Mokubung said a project that packaged oxygen gas was awaiting the investment incentives to be operationalised.

He said there was another project that intended to produce pharmaceutical products like tablets and medicine for the Ministry of Health.

For his part,  Mr Garekwe Segaetsho, owner of FibreMan which is currently involved in a fiberglass producing project to manufacture water tanks, boats, bath tubs , toilet seats and many more expressed his concerns regarding investor incentives citing that he had not benefitted from any.

He added that he was facing land problems, stating that there was  warehouse big enough to operate around Selebi Phikwe.

Speaking on the SPEDU projects tour, MP for Selebi Phikwe East,  Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse extended his gratitude towards the SPEDU Company for having arranged the tour.

He said the tour demonstrated that thousands of jobs could be created in Selebi Phikwe. ENDS