22 Mar 2020

Parliament has approved Ministry of Employment, Labour Productivity and Skills Developent budget amounting to over P800 million as recurrent budget and over P190 million as development budget.

Presenting the budget, Mr Mpho Balopi said the requested amount reflected an increase of just over P74 million or 10 per cent increase for recurrent budget as compared to the 2019/2020 allocation.

He said out of the proposed amount, the bulk of the ministry’s budget of over P578 million was proposed to fund skills development under the Department of Skills Development.“The money will be used for vocational training running expenses in order to align with the drive towards a knowledge-based economy,” said Mr Balopi.

He said ministry headquarters had been allocated over P161 million of which about P105 million was proposed to be allocated to parastatals under the ministry. being Botswana National Productivity Centre and the Construction Industry Trust Fund.

The Department of Labour and Social Protection has been allocated over P61 million that will be used to provide labour administration services. It comprises of trade disputes resolutions through mediation and arbitration, registration of trade inspections, processing of work permits, registration of trade unions and employers organisations, registration of job seekers and monitoring localising programmes.

Mr Balopi proposed that about  P18 million be used for the improvement of workplace safety and guiding industries on occupational health and safety international best practices.Meanwhile, the ministry’s development budget of over P190 will fund projects including maintenance of brigade institutions and procurement of workshop equipment and machinery at the cost of about P150 million.

The ministry’s Local Area Network (LAN) upgrading and procurement of ICT equipment for technical, vocational education and training (TVET) had been budgeted over P40 million.

Furthermore, Mr Balopi said in an effort to address low productivity, a draft national productivity blueprint was being developed.

Upon completion of the plan, he said it would be operationalised by developing a national productivity improvement strategy during financial year 2020/21.

Mr Balopi said the objectives of the blueprint would be to provide a framework for addressing productivity and work ethic related issues for economic growth.

“The blueprint would also provide well-coordinated mechanism for productivity improvement efforts and propel Botswana to higher-income status, positioning her for global competitiveness,” he stated. ENDs