01 Jun 2025

Apt and decisive management of bureaucracies that impede implementation and functionality of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) is critical to create the much needed employment opportunities in the country. 

Speaking during a capacity building workshop organised for the Lobatse District Economic Development Committee (DEDC) and Local Economic Development (LED) committee members on the Local Economic Development Framework in Lobatse last week, Special Economic Zone Authority (SEZA) director of strategy and stakeholder engagement, Ms Orekolotse Koloi-Ngcobo said SEZs were a one-stop-shop for investors with special regulations and have proven to have great potential in creating employment opportunities within a short space of time. 

She said SEZs brought transformative projects to promote economic diversification, adding that SEZA could fast track employment creation but the main challenge was some legal requirements. She said the SEZA strategy could expedite the much needed industrialisation for the reason that in a SEZ, 80 per cent of activity comprised manufacturing and processing, while 20 per cent was distribution and logistics which could create job opportunities. She said SEZA, which was established by an Act of Parliament in 2015, became operational in 2018 but had been faced with challenges. 

“We have achieved minimum progress because when the SEZA Act was passed in Parliament, there were laws that were already in place and the SEZA Act was in conflict with some of them. It is taking a long time to amend the laws to enable us to see SEZA coming into action and actually delivering what it was established to do,” she said. 

She said Botswana had designated nine SEZs governed by special administrative regulatory and fiscal framework. As the authority, she said they were supposed to be allowed to source own funding, but due to the existing laws which hinders them from doing that, there had been delays in developing some of the SEZs and facilitating large scale investors. She added that they had submitted a list of laws to the Attorney General for review to enable the authority to assert itself. 

The challenge, she said, had caused setbacks as they have had a number of financiers and interested investors who brought in a minimum investment value of P200 million per project who wanted to set up in Botswana but could not due to existing red tape. She added that they had challenges of processing land for them to do business. 

“So far we have lost about 18 investors, one had planned to invest P5 billion in Botswana but because of the red tape, he moved to Namibia. We need to be as competitive as possible because investors move to where the laws are business-friendly. Our aim is to overcome barriers to both domestic trade and foreign direct investment,” she said. 

She said they encouraged investors to partner with locals but it was not in their purview to tell investors whom they could partner with. ENDS