24 Jan 2021

National Development Bank head of clients, Ms Sethunya Gaolebogwe has urged partners to work collectively and support the business community during these trying times of COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking during the Industry Support Facility (ISF) Fund presentation workshop, she stressed the need to strengthen collaboration and see how best they could cushion them as the environment was challenging.

Ngamiland businesses’ future, she said, looked bleak as no one was certain about when the pandemic situation would stabilise, hence the need for partners to come up with interventions geared towards supporting the business community.

Ms Gaolebogwe noted that many were optimistic that 2021 would be a better year, but it was unfortunate that the year started to be more challenging, stating that such called for all to put up strategies that could help businesses to pull through.

She acknowledged that the government continued with efforts to introduce interventions to assist different sectors and underscored the need to augment such efforts.

“These are our common clients and we do not want to see their businesses collapsing, hence we introduced the ISF Fund to sustain their operations,” she added.

Through the ISF Fund, she said they aimed to sustain businesses, resuscitate the economy as well as to protect employment, adding that it was worrisome as many workers, especially in the tourism industry, lost jobs due to the effects of the pandemic.

The funding, she said, targeted operating businesses, noting that it cut across all categories, be it women, youth, small, medium and large businesses as NDB  wanted all to benefit and bounce back.

Ms Gaolebogwe revealed that sectors such as tourism was critical in the growth of the economy, hence ISF Fund would ensure businesses remained afloat.

Currently, she said NDB was working on an influx of applications experienced during December.

She urged businesses to try other means to navigate the environment.

“During this challenging times, we encourage you to put up strategies to navigate the environment and we are committed to walk the path with you.

If your businesses need more than the stipulated loans, we can always talk and see if we can advance additional loans,” she added.

Businesses were also encouraged to incorporate health protocols in their operations to protect their clientele as well as their employees.

She said NDB had other products for businesses to take advantage of, citing agricultural products such as Temo Bokamoso and Ntlhatlosa kwa Morakeng.

The loans, she said, were tailor- made to develop the agricultural sector by empowering Batswana. ENDS