29 Mar 2022

Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) has been lauded for striving to assist in Francistown’s economic development.

Addressing Francistown full council meeting on Monday, mayor, Mr Godisang Radisigo said LEA put emphasis on provision of business advisory services, business planning, mentoring, market access, physical incubation, technology and innovation. 

He said all these efforts were geared towards ensuring that the businesses within the region remained sustainable and profitable.  He said LEA made every effort to empower citizens through submission of business plans to various financiers, adding that so far a total of 204 business proposals valued at more than P75.3 million were submitted since April last year to date. 

Of these, he said 28 were submitted to CEDA, three to National Dvelopment Bank, 171 to youth ministry, while one was submitted to Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agriculture Development (ISPAAD) and another to the commercial banks.

The authority, he said, continued to monitor businesses monthly through collection of vital statistics that provided a basis from where business decisions and analysis were made. Mr Radisigo revealed that from April last year to date, more than P77.7 million was recorded as sales or turnover from the LEA clients. 

“LEA links businesses to potential markets available locally and abroad and there was a shift in market linkages where locals prefer to buy local products because of the improved quality,” he said. 

This, he said, was a positive move as it allowed economic growth and contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

Mr Radisigo noted that there was need to upscale procurement from locally-based businesses and support economic development. 

He said with the enactment of regulations that instituted import bans on certain commodities such as bread products, horticultural products and school uniforms, the economy of the region would  grow tremendously and satisfy the markets.

On one hand, he said, job creation remained one of the council’s major goals when it enhanced the capacity of the private sector. 

From April this year, a total of 203 jobs were created by LEA clients through business plans conversion and expansion. 

“Of this 203, a total of 112 jobs were recorded from the manufacturing sector, 46 from the agriculture sector, 44 from services sector and only one from tourism,” he said.   On urban revitalisation, Mr Radisigo said the city had taken a major step to revive its economy and spatial scape through the development of Francistown Revitalization plan, which was approved in February 2019. 

He said the revitalisation plan that was a renaissance strategy for the Blue Jacket Street Corridor, was aimed at reorganising and redeveloping the Central Business District and improving its linkages with all neighbourhoods. 

The plan, he said, emphasizes the linkages between the quality of the spatial environment, investor confidence, local economic development and promotion of economic development zones.

“As a step towards achieving the goals of the strategy, council, through the Physical Planning Committee, has approved several major commercial developments, which are currently underway,” he said. 

They include Toro Mall by Molapo turn off, development of contemporary offices by Motor Vehicle Accident Fund, extension of the Shoprite Mall to include a floor and upper floor parking and the development of recreational park and commercial facilities Mummies. Ends