30 Aug 2022

Debswana Diamond Company in conjunction with First National Bank-Botswana (FNBB) have pledged P1 million for this year’s Business Botswana national business conference to be held in Francistown on October 17.

This was announced during a press briefing in Gaborone Monday.

The two companies will each sponsor the upcoming 16^th Biennial National Business Conference with P500 000.

Debswana Head of Corporate Affairs, Ms Rachel Mothibatsela said the company associated itself with the role of Business Botswana of  creating a conducive climate for small, medium and large-scale businesses in the country.

She said Debswana, through its vision and aspirations, as well as the 2024 business strategy had prioritised a transformational agenda that encapsulated citizen economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, enterprise development and an overall proactive economic participation.

 Hence, she said the national business conference and its success were an enabler for the acceleration of transformational strategy.

FNB Director of Marketing, Communications and Public Relations, Ms Peo Porogo said the bank would remain investing in partnership and collaborations that created lasting business impact.

Therefore, she said they took pride in partnering with Business Botswana in building a vibrant and resilient business sector in the country.

For his part, Business Botswana policy director, Mr Dichaba Molobe said they were concerned about the level of implementation of reforms, which could move the country to a high income status.

As such, he said Business Botswana would continue to make constant calls for speedy implementation of reforms, hence the conference would discuss impediments to attaining high income status.

Mr Molobe said the country’s ambition towards becoming a high income status was under threat as it had been marred by poor implementation, lack of coordination, little accountability from both the public and private sector.

He said there was a need for constant dialogue to move the country from reliance on natural resources to knowledge economy and consequently improving the standard of living.

“There is therefore an urgent need to understand bottlenecks and challenges and to efficiently resolve these,” he said.

He said the conference would explore practical yet innovative approaches to accelerating the country transformation towards high income status.

The conference, to be held under the theme: Road Map to High Income and Accelerating Transformation, is expected to attract over 400 leaders from business, government and civil society. BOKHUTLO