02 Sep 2021

The Economic Inclusion Bill has  sailed through a third reading of Parliament on Wednesday.

The bill provides for, among others, the establishment of the economic empowerment office.

The office’s primary role is to facilitate empowerment initiatives to promote effective participation of targeted citizens in the country’s development and economic growth.

The Economic Inclusion Bill is a sequel to the 2018 evaluation of the Citizen Economic Empowerment Policy, which revealed that citizen empowerment initiatives remained inadequate with little success due to lack of coordination and enforcement of existing laws across sectors.

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela recently stated THAT part of the policy evaluation outcome was increased advocacy for citizen empowerment legislation.

Therefore, the purpose of the legislation, he said, would be to ensure economic inclusion and meaningful participation of targeted citizens in the development and growth of the economy.

The bill will ensure that establishment of the office promotes effective participation of targeted citizens.

It defines targeted citizens as a person whose economic resources have been constrained due to various factors which may be determined by gender, educational background, economic status, disability and other thresholds.

In addition, the bill seeks to, among others, strengthen the ability of a targeted citizen to own, manage and control a private sector enterprise and productive assets.

Other provision of the bill includes enhancing global competitiveness through empowerment and partnerships besides transforming the economy to be private sector led.

The bill will also ensure compliance and foster accountability, and ease of monitoring and evaluation of citizen economic empowerment initiatives. ENDS