17 Feb 2021

Businesses accommodated in Local Enterprise Authority’s (LEA) Kutla Incubator have been urged to ensure quality products meeting market standards.

  Speaking during a tour of the facility yesterday, Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi pointed out that his ministry had the power to close borders to facilitate procurement from local producers thereby increasing import substitution. 

 Mr Molebatsi encouraged the companies to increase production citing market availability in the mining industry and many countries  such as Zambia and DRC. 

   For his part, LEA chief executive officer Dr Racious Moatshe said the incubation model worked and bore significant results, particularly in view of the country’s economic thrust. 

 Dr Moatshe said this was evidenced by businesses that had been previously incubated which had shown growth overtime and beyond graduation from the facility. 

  He called on government to consider investing more in entrepreneurship development especially since Botswana was surrounded by countries with large economies. 

  In addition, he said government needed to assess where resources could be channeled stressing that incubation in terms of infrastructural development and technology was the way to go.

 Dr Moatshe said once the infrastructural platform for production was established, import substitution was achievable which meant local products comparable to imported ones would be consumed within the local market. 

 Such a move had the potential to unlock value chains surrounding certain products within the market which in turn generated revenue for businesses within Botswana, he said adding that local businesses would also have a stake thorough research on natural ingredients for value addition. 

 Dr Moatshe spoke of LEA’s plans for expanding incubation facilities which would incorporate Kanye, Molepolole, and Francistown, where a bottle-blowing wing had been established to service bottled water related enterprises. 

 He revealed that the organisation recently got authorisation from the Ministry of Agriculture Development and Food Security  to expand the Glen Valley Incubator into a Dikabea site. 

 Also in the LEA stable were small stock projects in Ghanzi on 5 200 hectares with two boreholes, he said adding that  fencing and paddocking was ongoing.

 Dr Moatshe said about 40 young farmers had been profiled for incubation to accelerate their production.

 He said in partnership with Botswana Development Corporation, LEA was in the process of acquiring land in the Madikwe area for scaling up horticultural farmers.  

 The LEA chief said there were plans to introduce virtual incubation. 

 Dr Moatshe said the first cohort of clients had already been identified and included the 40 young farmers incubated in Ghanzi. 

 He said the organisation also had footprints in Bokaa where the old BTC buildings were being refurbished for housing textile manufacturers.

 The project was being undertaken in partnership with the Ministry of Labour, Productivity and Skills Development, he said.

 On the Mr Molebatsi’s visit, Dr Moatshe explained that the purpose was to appreciate the incubation model as well as the quality of entrepreneurship among businesses accommodated at the facility and their output in terms of products and services offered.

 That, he said, was important in helping the minister to make informed decisions around the production capacity of local entrepreneurs, the business synergies of the products and their whereabouts. Ends