06 Mar 2022

Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela says foreign direct investment into the local economy worth P951.42 million was realised between April and December 2021.

Presenting the ministry’s 2022/2023 financial year budget estimates to Parliament recently, Mr Kgafela also said P1.6 million worth of domestic investment and expansions was also realised, resulting in creation of 4 227 jobs.

The minister proposed over P1.065 billion as budget estimates for the ministry for 2022/2023.

He said the estimates, which comprised over P951 million recurrent expenditure and over P113.6 million development expenditure, were a decrease of two per cent from the current financial year.

Mr Kgafela said about P731m from the recurrent expenditure would be allocated to the 11 parastatals, while five departments under the ministry would get close to P221m.

He explained that the development expenditure would caterd for computerisation project for the ministry, construction of the Lobatse Leather Park, development of the Special Economic Zones common facilities, the Doing Business and the transactional advisor for the Special Economic Zones.

Updating Parliament on the ministry’s performance in the current financial year, Mr Kgafela said several interventions aimed at promoting business sustenance were introduced.

He said 7 914 businesses were funded at a total of P37m through the Letlhabile product operated by the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).

The minister added that P288m worth of business loans were restructured through the CEDA repayment holidays and loan restructuring.

He added that P140.2m from the P700m allocated to the ministry under the Industry Support Facility was disbursed by CEDA, the Local Enterprise Agency (LEA) and Botswana Development Corporation (BDC).

“To date P19.5 million has been disbursed to 128 businesses under CEDA. Of this amount manufacturing investment amounted to P3.1 million which funded 20 businesses, while the remaining P16.2 million financed 108 businesses trading in services,” he said.

He further said LEA disbursed P47.7m to 45 713 enterprises, while BDC disbursed P75m as equity injection and loan restructuring to large enterprises.

The minister added that a further seven business applications valued at P162m had been approved and were awaiting disbursement of funds. He added that BDC was also at advanced stage of assessing other applications for additional uptake of funds amounting to P200m.

Mr Kgafela said the CEDA revised guidelines of April 2020 had cultivated desired response through their relaxed terms and favourable interest rates.

“Since the guidelines were launched in July 2020 up to September 2021, loans amounting to P1.1 billion have been approved. Out of this amount P296 million was approved during the first half of the 2021/2022 financial year. A total of 1 460 have been approved since the commencement of the new guidelines and 2 373 jobs were created while an additional 1 538 were sustained,” he said.

Mr Kgafela said the ministry banned importation of school uniforms in a move aimed to build competitiveness in the local textile industry.

“Since coming in effect in September 2021, the retail sector is engaging the local manufacturers by sharing their requirements to meet their supply,” he said.

The minister said preparations were ongoing to commence implementation of the strategy for growing the middle-class next month. He said the strategy, approved in 2021, aimed to facilitate the middle class to focus their managerial and knowledge to create jobs.

The ministry as at December last year managed to secure market for goods valued at P98.8 million from SMEs. Ends