25 Aug 2020

Batswana entrepreneurs need to partner with each other  in order to create strong and sustainable businesses, Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Buti Billy has said.

Contributing to a debate on the mid term review of the eleventh National Development Plan (NDP 11) at the National Assembly on Monday, Mr Billy said Batswana entrepreneurs could grow their businesses if they worked together.

He said supermarket chain store, Choppies, had managed to expand having started on a foundation similar to the one laid by small scale Batswana entrepreneurs.

Other entrepreneurs, he said, should likewise work on expanding scope of their business and take advantage of the funding availed by the government through the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).

Mr Billy said the country also needed to invest in agricultural development and exploit opportunities in the value chain of crop production, animal meat and the beef industry

in order to develop a strong agricultural sector that could earn the country revenue through exporting produce.

To this end, Mr Billy said there was need to invest in providing enablers such as land, water and information communication technology (ICT) to those engaged in business.

Expressing concern about the import bill in agriculture and in the economy as a whole, Mr Billiy said Botswana should invest in import substitution industrial development.

He further said the country should invest in providing strong anti-corruption messaging and inculcate transparent methods of conducting business, with project monitoring and evaluation key to guard against wastage.

Also contributing to the debate, Mmadinare MP, Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi, stressed the need for the country to invest in developing a strong agricultural sector with a view of being self-sufficient in food production.

Mr Molebatsi said there was need to invest in basic education and healthcare, which he said were key sectors for welfare of the people.

Noting that the government had policies focusing on empowering the youth and the elderly, Mr Molebatsi said there was also need to target middle aged persons still active with different business schemes.

He said these could be used as incentives to lure middle aged public servants to exit the civil service early and pursue private business, which would create space for younger people to be employed by government.

Mr Molebatsi added that active people who were middle aged had greater experience and maturity than the younger generation whose inexperience often led to some of their businesses failing. ENDS