30 May 2023

Business Botswana has been challenged to invite the international business community to next year’s Northern Trade Fair.

Next year, Business Botswana will also be celebrating its 30^th anniversary and the trade fair is expected to be a spectacular event that would see the business community across the country making the event an unforgettable one.

Speaking at the 27^th Business Botswana Northern Trade Fair prize giving ceremony on Saturday, the fair’s chief judge, also Francistown business woman, Ms Lorna Pearman said next year’s fair would be a rare and valuable opportunity to meet international players in order to share experience and learn from each other.

Ms Pearman indicated that this year’s fair had attracted over 130 exhibitors from different sectors of the economy.

“These LEA-backed projects were first world class projects and appealed to Batswana to use LEA to grow their businesses,” she said.

She therefore applauded the authority’s commitment in championing the battle for local entrepreneurs to achieve their goals.

She also applauded women for having participated in this year’s trade fair in large numbers. “It was good to see all the women standing toe to toe and doing an amazing job. Ladies let us stand up and be counted in order to build our economy and country,” she added.

“There was commitment and passion shown by young women and men in businesses and executive positions. Their hunger for success and fresh ideas was limitless because the country is in good hands when it comes to business opportunities,” she said.

She however, appealed to government to come up with new interventions in getting young people off the streets so that they became valuable members of the community.

Meanwhile, the awards ceremony saw, under government category, the National Assembly scoop position one followed by the Attorney General’s Chambers while the Ministry of Youth Gender, Sport and Culture came third.

Under parastatals, Water Utilities Corporation scooped position one, Gambling Authority came second and Botswana Housing Corporation settled for position three.

The business services category saw Security Systems getting position one, Dilo Tsotlhe Holdings second while Dynalab Botswana came third. 

Bank of Botswana scooped position one in the banking and finance category, followed by Bayport Financial Services in position two while Bank of Baroda got position three.

Under agriculture, Chenan Blank scooped position one and Department of Forestry and Range Resources settled for second position. Under the mining category, Morupule Coal Mine scooped position one, and BarloWorld Equipment settled for the second position while Botswana Ash came third. Ends