03 Feb 2020

Government will, during the coming financial year, focus on upscaling, deepening and rolling out the Local Economic Development (LED) process to other districts.

In his budget speech yesterday, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr Thapelo Matsheka said this would help avoid expenditure leaks and retain cash in their localities, thereby creating more job opportunities.

“Consequently, government will review the National Policy for Rural Development 2002. The revised policy will seek to identify rural development challenges and articulate how Botswana’s rural areas can be equipped to mitigate development challenges and harness economic opportunities,” he said. He said this was critical in guiding prioritisation of projects/programmes to the rural areas in order to ensure those yielding the highest outcome or impact were selected and funded.

Dr Matsheka further noted that government would continue to build the capacity of the district to effectively implement the LED framework and implementation plan for Botswana.

The LED process was piloted in four administrative districts of Chobe, Francistown, Kgalagadi and Sowa Town since 2014.

The pilot districts embarked on the identification of upstream and downstream businesses and bankable business plans, including farming in Chobe, small stock in Kgalagadi, waste management project in Francistown and eco-tourism project in Sowa Town,” he said. ENDS