18 Oct 2022

The decline in labour productivity has challenged government to work on a policy framework and agenda to address national productivity, work ethics and competitiveness as well as challenges for improved productivity-led economy,

Productivity levels in Botswana stood at 0.49 per cent in 2017 and some improvement has been recorded in 2018 at 2.74 per cent.

Speaking during a consultative meeting on the development of the national productivity and competitiveness policy and strategy project in Francistown recently, Productivity and Competitiveness director in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Bonnie Jim said labour productivity in Botswana had declined in the past few years, a phenomenon behind the collapse of many businesses.

“Productivity is a key requisite for economic growth and employment,” stated Mr Jim, noting that Botswana had for a long time been operating without such a policy.

Mr Jim said things worsened in 2019/20 when the country recorded a downfall of -6.95 per cent attributed to the outbreak of COVID-19, a period when most businesses collapsed.

He said the policy would also provide a strong and well-coordinated mechanism for productivity improvement efforts across various stakeholders in the economy, be it government, private sector or labour force.

Mr Jim said the project would help propel Botswana towards attainment of a high income status by 2036 as well as to provide a platform for collective responsibility for productivity and competitiveness, adding that productivity and competitiveness were among key economic growth variables, yet Botswana had no policy related to the area, which led to challenges in coordinating.

He said the national productivity and competitiveness policy, therefore, set out direction in relation to productivity and competitiveness issues in Botswana as it outlined government agenda.

Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) research fellow, Ms Gaokgakala Maenge said statistics indicated that in Botswana, productivity had drastically declined in all sectors of the economy.

She said the global competitiveness index of 2018 showed that Botswana took position 90 out of 140 countries with a score of 55 per cent, which was below par, adding that in 2019 it increased by one with the same score.

Ms Maenge said Botswana did not perform impressively under health in 2018 and 2019.

She said the agricultural sector was the least playing sector in government institutions as far as productivity was concerned in the contribution to GDP while mining sector had been performing good for the past years, but research showed that the sector was now declining because its contribution towards employment was declining while its wages were growing.

Participants raised a concern that government had good policies and programmes, but implementation was the major challenge.

They also said poor service delivery in government institutions was another concern that needed to be addressed adequately, citing corruption among barriers of productivity in government institutions.

Participants suggested promotion of remote work culture since some employees did not need to be at the office to do their work. ENDS