22 Feb 2023

Government has made significant progress in building the foundation for continued economic recovery, Minister for State President, Mr Kabo Morwaeng has said. Minister Morwaeng said this in his response to the budget proposals for the 2023/2024 financial year on Tuesday. He said it was such significant progress that had made Botswana to emerge as one of the fastest recoveries from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr Morwaeng, also Member of Parliament for Molepolole South, also applauded government for leading the country on a path to economic transformation and job creation opportunities that would alleviate poverty. The legislator said the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)-led government had always preached a basic message, easily understood by Batswana to the effect that government was committed to developing and improving their living conditions. 

“Since we assumed stewardship of this nation, the life of the average Motswana has undergone tremendous positive change. It comes as no surprise that the 2023/2024 budget allocations are in line with the agreed policies and programmes as well as Vision 2036 and the Reset and Reclaim Agenda priorities,” Mr Morwaeng said. 

For his part, Nata/Gweta legislator, Mr Polson Majaga argued that developing progressive value chain linkages in the agriculture was key in building the foundation for economic recovery. 

Mr Majaga also emphasised the need to diversify agricultural production and promote the potential in agro-industrial and supply chain development owing to the sector’s decreased share in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). 

“Botswana has exported fresh and frozen beef products to Europe since independence ignoring further investment opportunities that exist in domestic production like fodder or feed production, transportation and processed meat for domestic and export markets,” he said. 

Mr Majaga said dairy farming should be identified as a potential area of growth and investment in the domestic agricultural sector. A notable challenge, he said had been the cost of feed, which created an additional investment opportunities for domestic feed production. 

He said as stated in the party manifesto, the BDP-led government should strive to transform the country’s agriculture landscape through the promotion of agribusiness. 

“The BDP-led government remains steadfast in delivering on its promise of adopting new farming technologies that create new ways of responding to existing needs and significantly disrupts existing agriculture value chain,” he said. 

He emphasised the importance of promoting efficient technologies in order for agricultural producers to participate in the industry in meaningfully profitable ways. 

To further revive the declined contribution of agriculture to the economy, Mr Majaga said government should prioritise operating the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) on Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. “Privatisation of the BMC would be a key component in reviving the beef sector in order to generate significant beef export earnings and provide a vibrant economic base for the country,” he said. He added that privatisation of the BMC made business sense because it would relieve government from spending on bailing it out and channel funds towards other important initiatives. 

For the Bobonong MP, Mr Taolo Lucas, the 2023/2024 budget allocation was not addressing promotion of sustainable livelihoods. Mr Lucas argued that the budget proposals also failed to clearly stipulate how Batswana would have the opportunity to participate in mainstream economic activities in order to attain sustainable livelihoods. 

“It is disappointing that the budget reflects an increase in the GDP and economic growth while poverty which is characterised by high unemployment rate has increased by 20.8 per cent,” he said. He added that the recently released Statistics Botswana report showed that over 244 000 Batswana were actively looking for jobs while 111 000 were discouraged job seekers. 

“The level of welfare inequalities among Batswana is worrisome as the gap between the rich and poor continues to widen,” MP Lucas said. Also contributing to the debate, Ghanzi North MP, Mr John Thiite was happy that the largest share of the development budget was to be allocated to implementation of infrastructure projects. 

Mr Thiite said implementation of the infrastructure projects, would play a pivotal role in employment creation as well enhance the ease of doing business and investment. “The developments will position Botswana among the highly developed countries thus aiding the country to easily lure in the much needed direct foreign investors pivotal for economic growth,” he said. ends