15 Mar 2020

 Empowerment programmes such as Poverty Eradication have the ability to address unemployment, Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane has said.

Officiating at the National Poverty Eradication Expo in Gaborone on March 13, he said such programmes should be supported in order for them to yield positive results and reverse the unemployment trend.

In that regard, he encouraged all stakeholders to pull together to ensure the majority of small businesses do survive and become big players in the business world.

Thus, he called on the retail sector to support Poverty Eradication beneficiaries by either providing shelf spaces in their establishments or buy their products for re-sale.

He said it was essential for the country to support those businesses to grow them further so that they could create employment for fellow citizens.

Furthermore, he encouraged the Poverty Eradication coordinating unit to focus more on implementing projects that could employ more people.

“Group projects have generally shown a higher success and sustainability than individual projects, thus have a much high potential for sustained employment opportunities,” he said.

Furthermore, he said certification of some products by Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) was a step in the right direction towards bringing beneficiaries’ products to required and appropriate standards for the markets.

Subsequently, he said the products would now have a chance to not only stay longer on the shelf, but also penetrate local retailers, regional and international selling spots.

The Vice President revealed that it was encouraging that some Poverty Eradication projects had passed BOBS certification, bringing them to required and appropriate standards for the markets.

These include dish washing liquid, toilet disinfectant, multi-purpose gel and foam bath from Mabule and Palapye, while the washing powder and floor polish from Gumare were still awaiting results.

The product certification at the bare minimum, he said, would deliver three key benefits: extended shelf life, price competitiveness and a larger market share.

Further, he said some of the projects were being tested at Kenya and India through BOBS, given that ‘BOBS does not have the standards’.

“If we can be tested and pass at international level, surely products from our beneficiaries should be and must be a dominant feature in our shelves, both at home and in the offices,” he said.

The Vice President further said beneficiaries should familiarise themselves with value chains around Poverty Eradication projects and exploit those to create wealth for themselves.

With regards to this year’s theme; Up-scaling the Lives of Batswana Through Sustainable Entrepreneurship, he said it was more appropriate for the country’s stage of development to build a resilient society that could take care of itself and take part in the development of the country.

For his part, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Kabo Morwaeng said the National Exposition offered an opportunity to reflect on the journey towards eradication of absolute poverty.

He said the objectives of the exposition were to showcase success stories from the Poverty Eradication programme as a way of exposing the products and services to the market.

He said the expo was also meant to identifying potential business partners through networking platform for beneficiaries and to demonstrate the impact of the programme on the livelihood of Batswana as well as to showcase available business packages under Poverty Eradication programme. ENDS