03 Aug 2020

Assistant Minister in the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Karabo Gare has told Parliament that there were efforts to stimulate and promote the growth of the manufacturing sector in the country.

Mr Gare told Parliament on Thursday that the Industrial Development Policy, whose objective is productive development of capacity and competitiveness of enterprise including ease of doing business, is in place to guide development of the manufacturing sector.

He noted that the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) was one of the agencies that was capacitated through the industrial development policy.

Mr Gare described LEA’s mandate as the coordination of the entire ecosystem of SMME development which worked in conjunction with the government, development partners and research institutions to support the development.

He also explained that LEA provided operational space through incubation to upscale production, ensuring quality and the negotiation of local market access.

He also explained that the ministry had over the years implemented a number of initiatives and programmes which continued to be reviewed to address emerging challenges.

“The revised CEDA guidelines will contribute towards improving access to finance for SMMEs,” Mr Gare said.

He also said the CEDA guidelines had identified the manufacturing and mining sectors as special sectors that would benefit from preferential interest pricing.

Mr Gare added that the ministry had, in place, a number of programmes to support the manufacturing sector, which included setting up supplier development programmes for SMMEs who supplied the mining sector.

He said LEA’s revised guidelines would alleviate challenges of access to funding for SMMEs to enable those in manufacturing to acquire modern equipment and machinery.

Furthermore, LEA will be helping them with improving production processes and quality certification, including the acquirement of leasing out some of its factory shells to manufacturing SMMEs at affordable rates.

Mr Gare also noted that there was a pre-project funding facility valued at P5 million, which the ministry had availed to SMMEs for meeting modalities of project requirements.

He said government had also implemented SACU rebates to assist enterprises with costs of products and provide financial support through the special support programme to ease payment of wages to employees.

He was responding to Kanye North MP, Mr Thapelo Lesholo, who asked the minister to appraise Parliament on the key initiatives that were planned or were being implemented to enable SMMEs to access and participate in capital intensive and high value business in mining and manufacturing. 

He also asked what impeded the  growth of the manufacturing sector in Botswana as well as for the minister to state  efforts that were made to promote manufacturing over the last 10 years. Ends