22 Sep 2022

Local Authorities have been encouraged to develop policies and programmes that will address the needs of small entrepreneurs at local level.

Doing so would help to build their resilience and enable them to face future challenges, United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) specialist, Mr Johnson Maiketso said during a panel discussion on how local authorities can tap on their strengths to create a conducive environment for linkages in the local value chains.

Mr Maiketso also urged local authorities to strengthen partnerships for inclusivity, noting that they could start by developing people if they were to have a knowledgeable resource for development purposes and for small businesses to thrive.

He said given their strategic position, local authorities were at an advantage to determine how resources could be used for the benefit of the people.

ABSA head of public sector, Ms Gaba Sekwakwa said local authorities should consider utilising the partnership between Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) and the bank as they had a common interest of growing the economy.

The bank, she said, continued to develop solutions to societal challenges through innovative products, services and partnerships with primary focus on entrepreneurship.

She also said they acknowledged the pivotal role played by BALA hence they invested P300 000 towards preparations for the 2022 BALA conference.

She said the bank played a key role in supporting and nurturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) citing that they had funded citizen enterprises to the tune of P6 million through their Enterprise and Supply Chain Development initiative. 

The initiative aims to unlock lending to SMEs in the corporate value chain.

Ms Sekwakwa also noted that they had forged partnerships with several companies such as  Debswana and Woolworths to economically empower local citizens across the supply chain.

“Through the initiative, we have identified a Motswana company producing bread and we are working with her to meet the required standards to penetrate the lucrative market,” she said.

She thus challenged local authorities to start conversations on fostering partnerships to see how best they could assist SMEs and embrace the Local Economic Development initiative.

“We continue to explore various partnership agreements and I believe value chain development is one area that local authorities can leverage on it,” she added.

Botswana Association of Tribal Land Authorities (BATLA) president, Mr Johane Chenjekwa said they were mandated to capitalise on their strengths to improve livelihoods, adding that they were currently engaging all land boards as land custodians to see how best they could meet the challenges at hand.

He underscored the need for local authorities and land boards to work collectively to develop strategies aimed to benefit the community as well as create a friendly environment for investors.

“We should understand that we are competing for attraction of investors with other countries and if we fail to avail land and create a conducive environment of doing business, investors will go and invest in other countries which are ready,” he added.

Mr Chenjekwa urged local authorities to team up with land boards, introspect and correct their mistakes, emphasising that lands boards should be responsive to the needs of the community and shorten the period of land allocation. 

He also noted that they should avail land for value chain development and opportunities to thrive.

“We should stop suffocating our people. Let us remove the red tape as land is a key factor in leveraging our strengths,” he added. Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Entrepreneurship, Mr Lameck Nthekela said that the newly established ministry sought to address challenges of entrepreneurs.

Value chain and financing, he said were key hence training was paramount so that entrepreneurs could run successful businesses. ENDS