19 Sep 2022

Cooperatives  have been encouraged to embrace new technology in order to enhance business efficiency

Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare made the call at the 100^th International Day of Cooperatives commemoration in Maun on Saturday September 17.

He said with cooperatives having existed for many decades in Botswana, operating through traditional tools, it was time for them to take advantage of digitisation.

He said his ministry had formulated a transformation strategy for cooperatives, which ensured that cooperatives brought positive change by running efficiently and contribute to economy.

To achieve this, he said there was need for cooperatives to run with a vision of what they wanted to achieve so that they would remain sustainable.

Mr Gare highlighted that the aim of a cooperative was to build team work and self-reliance adding that their structure was all encompassing, with people who work elsewhere and those fully employed by cooperative.

“It is important to acknowledge the importance of cooperatives in Botswana because for many years people have been able to make a living and feed their families through cooperatives,” he said.

Mr Gare said this year’s theme: Cooperatives Build a Better World, was fitting and encouraging to work even hard to achieve universal goals of building food security.

He also advised business enterprises to explore opportunities offered by lending institutions like CEDA who had tailor-made initiatives for cooperatives to access finance.

He therefore applauded Savings and Credit Cooperative Society Limited (SACCOS) in Botswana for generating profits by lending their members money.

In his remarks, Botswana Cooperatives Association (BOCA) chairperson, Mr Thatayotlhe Mpule said co-ops had a positive impact on lives of people and it was also imperative to resuscitate the spirit of forming them and reinforce existing ones.

Mr Mpule highlighted that BOCA had embarked on a digitisation process for their members to capitalise on modern ways of data keeping and online business to improve efficiency.

He further noted that BOCA continued to facilitate co-ops to update data into new digitised systems.

He encouraged members to approach CEDA for financial programmes that were put aside for them. For his part, Batawana deputy chief, Kgosi Oleyo Ledimo said for co-ops to be celebrating 100 years in existence indicated growth.

Kgosi Ledimo said Ngamiland region prided itself with cooperatives that had existed since 1967, adding that Maun Marketing Co-op, Maun Consumers Co-op and Etsha Multiple Co-op were some of the long standing cooperatives from the 60s and 70s.

He added that Ngamiland as a beef producing region depended on cooperatives to bring together farmers to sell cattle, an initiative he said had proved to be a successful. Ends