23 Jun 2025

Sowa Town Council through their District Development Economic Committee (DDEC), organised market day for the Small Medium Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) mostly funded through government programmes to assist them to forge partnerships and secure new markets.

The council’s commercial officer Mr Ntemane Lebone said in an interview on the sideline of event on Thursday that  the initiative, was aimed to boost economic activity in Sowa as most of the businesses were not fully exposed to wider market. He said this year, they had over 100 businesses some of them coming as far as Lobatse, Gaborone as well as from neighbouring districts of North East and Tutume.

Mr Lebone said they had witnessed growth among the enterprises that had been coming to take part in the event, adding that these successful businesses had inspired and attracted upcoming entrepreneurs. In addition, he stated that as their town had been earmarked as Special Economic Zone for Chemical Production with Botswana Ash Mine, the market day, would therefore enable potential investors to come on board.

Furthermore, Mr Lebone said they were striving to achieve Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to stimulate economic growth in Sowa Town which they believed would drive job creation as more businesses move into setting up in the town. Mr Lebone said they had numerous application of businesses seeking permit and licences to utilise open spaces around the town and these are positive results of their effort of engaging SMMEs.

Youth Development Fund beneficiary Ms Ghadzani Tanken of Vula Jtose, a water purifying company based at Dukwi explained that she came for the first time at the market day in 2023 and since then she has tremendous growth in terms of the market as well as sales.

Before then, she was selling to the local community mostly and after attending the market day she spread to as far as Sebina moving towards securing Francistown market and paving way to open another branch in Nata through a partnership with another company. ENDS