31 May 2021

Despite sluggish economic growth, Botswana has for more than a year been spending money on COVID-19 test kits and testing.

 This was said by Vice President Slumber Tsogwane during a leadership meeting in Xhumo recently.

   He said the test kits were costly while government also incurred a lot of laboratory costs. 

That, he said, was the reason a tax increment had to be imposed.

The vice president said there was no alternative income generating method government could employ except to tax those benefitting from state services. 

  He said government realised no returns on money spent on services offered to members of the public on a daily basis.

  In addition, public officers’ salaries financed under recurrent consumed a huge chunk of the P56.05 billion recurrent budget.

He said due to the current constrained budgetary environment, it was critical to ensure more efficient government spending.

  Mr Tsogwane implored public officers as well as the private sector to enhance productivity levels.

 He said it was important to build resilience to enable the economy to withstand crisis in future. 

   The vice president called for the creation of local industries as a way to realising a self-sufficient economy.

 Noting that the import bill was very high compared to revenue derived from exports, he said export-led growth should be employed as a strategy to enhance economic development.

  He said it was crucial that production of the popular German print cloth be supported to enhance export capacity. 

On initiatives,  Mr Tsogwane said government was investing in human capital and had  seen the need for the country to  participate in science related research.

He also informed his audience  about  government’s plan to generate solar power for local consumption and export purposes.ends