19 Jul 2023

Councillors from the City of Genk in Belgium have hailed the Francistown Industrial Business Incubator (FIBI) for supporting start-ups.

Located at the Francistown Industrial Area, the incubator is run by Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) to assist entrepreneurs develop their businesses in the initial stages for a period of two years. 

It focuses on light manufacturing and currently houses 10 enterprises engaged in different forms of manufacturing.

The leader of the Belgian delegation, Mr Toon Vandeurzen described the incubator as a ‘successful story in supporting small scale entrepreneurs’.

He said such initiatives were valuable as they helped grow start-ups from an initial idea to fully-fledged companies. 

Mr Vandeurzen expressed confidence that the entrepreneurs currently housed at the incubator would eventually graduate to become successful companies.

Briefing the delegation, LEA’s Francistown Branch manager, Mr Mpho Lebaone explained that the organisation had various incubators across the country, and each had a specific area of specialisation such as small stock (Ghanzi), horticulture (Glen Valley), food processing (Pilane), as well as leather technologies and products in Gaborone. 

He said the incubators provide a working environment with shared services to nurture start-ups.

The visiting councillors were in Botswana as per the twinning arrangement between Francistown and Genk, which was established through a Memorandum of Agreement entered into in 2014 to cooperate in various areas of mutual benefit. Ends