11 Oct 2020

The Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, Dr Lemogang Kwape has challenged the business community to develop a sense of business acumen that will keep their businesses buoyant.
Speaking during a business consultative forum in Kanye recently, Dr Kwape said by so doing, businesses would be able to stay afloat under unfavourable or rather harsh economic conditions.

The Minister, who is also the area MP for Kanye South said etiquette to customers, decent approach to business, building rapport with stakeholders, networking and striving for a broader base of clientele were paramount in bringing the needed impact for business growth.

He thus advised businesses to start small, and argued that large corporations were what they were because they recognised what increased their opportunities for growth.   Dr Kwape said human capital development was a vehicle that capacitated employees to keep up with the rapid evolution and deployment of innovative technologies that were critical in transforming the economy.  

He said the unique selling preposition was something businesses could use to have a competitive edge over their competitors where creativity remained paramount.  

Business people may also deploy the comparative advantage approach to grow their companies in which a company gains exposure through providing the best services over its competitors, he said.  

Dr Kwape said the business community could also resort to crowd or cluster funding methodology to grow their businesses.  He advised the business community to avoid flooding into the same line of production as that could limit them to make desired profits.

For his part, Business Botswana’s membership management officer Mr Ofentse Ramakoloi said their mandate was to advocate and lobby for policy and regulatory matters as far as they affect the business environment in Botswana.

Mr Ramakoloi advised the business community to walk within the parameters of the law but pointed that laws should not make it difficult for people to do business.

Mr Tshepho Masire of Bonyamabogo Ranch who is into beef production and game farming said the installation of information and communications technologies (ICTs) infrastructure in production and farming zones were needed for ease of doing business.

He also spoke of the need to improve the quality of roads in farming and production zones to boost production. ENDS