20 Feb 2024

The formulation of the Chema Chema Fund guidelines are underway, says Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare.

Contributing to the 2024/2025 budget proposal debate in Parliament last week, he said intense consultations with all stakeholders would be carried out  in formulating the guidelines to ensure they were made with the interest of the informal sector at heart. 

“Expectations are for the guidelines to be done based on the expectations of potential beneficiaries,” he said.

The fund, he said, was aimed at fundamentally transforming the informal sector and creating more employment opportunities. He added that the proposed P200 million for the fund was testament of government’s recognition of the private sector as the engine of economic growth and job creation.

He also said government appreciated the importance of the SMME sector in meeting national development objectives of rapid economic growth, economic independence as well as sustainable development.

Mr Gare highlighted that one of the most prominent national strategies for realising income redistribution and social justice was through government’s support for small and micro-scale enterprises. He added that entrepreneurship and SMME development remained the most viable and plausible way to  unlock global economic challenges, as they were the critical drivers of job creation and accelerators of economic growth.

The recognition, he said, was a bold step for a nation whose citizens had always depended on the formal sector employment and government support in times of natural crisis such as periodic droughts. Mr Gare reiterated government’s determination to facilitate both foreign and domestic investors in setting up businesses.

He also commended the Ministry of Finance for proposing the allocation of funds.

However, Mr Gare said infrastructure development should not only focus on government self-capitalisation, but should also allow for private sector participation. The involvement of the private sector, he said, would serve as a true example of Public Private Partnership (PPP) which was a way of delivering key infrastructure projects at less cost to the state.

Regarding his Moshupa-Manyana constituency, Mr Gare expressed displeasure at the state of the Moshupa-Manyana road. He said it was disappointing because it was been the main link in the constituency.

Although he applauded the construction of the 70-bed Moshupa Primary Hospital, Mr Gare said there was need to upgrade clinics in his constituency to relief congestion at the hospital. ENDS