04 Apr 2023

The the world is faced with high unemployment rates and there is a need to grow the public and private sectors in order for them to groom the unemployed and underemployed to be employers and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Speaking during the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Absa Bank Botswana and the Ministry of Entrepreneurship on Monday, the ministry’s deputy permanent secretary, Ms Helen Chilisa said as such they had been tasked with drafting policies that would enhance entrepreneurship and that their areas of focus were enterprise development and coordination as well as small business development, among others.

Ms Chilisa also said they had upcoming value chain projects and were inviting citizens to participate as institutions such as ABSA would support them in projects based at the Leather Park, Business Hubs and agro processing centres.

“With a strong and innovative partner like ABSA, I have no doubt we will improve our successful entrepreneurial outcomes,” she said.

For his part, head of markets at Absa, Mr James Nthoyi said the MoU marked a significant milestone in their efforts to support the growth and development of entrepreneurship in Botswana. 

He added that they believed that entrepreneurship was a key driver of economic growth and job creation.

“That is why we have made it our mission to support and empower entrepreneurs in Botswana and over the years we have implemented various initiatives aimed at supporting it,” he said.

He noted that since the launch of their enterprise and supply chain development programme they had provided over P800 million worth of funding to small and medium enterprises.

On the collaboration with the ministry, he said there were five areas of mutual interest which included identifying and delivering appropriate skills training for entrepreneurs and facilitating the transfer of business and technology skills to SMMEs.

He also said they were looking forward to the success of the MoU and that they wished all current and budding entrepreneurs success as they took advantage of the partnerships that government and the private sector were developing. ENDS