18 Feb 2014

The recent budget speech delivered by the Minister of Finance and Development Planning highlighted prospects of business growth, especially for small and medium enterprises, says Mr Rajesh Narasimhan, a partner at Grant Thornton.

Speaking at a budget review hosted by Standard Chartered Bank, Mr Narasimhan said Botswana was expected to benefit from economic developments in major and emerging markets. “Inflation is set to remain within the objective range in the medium term which will foster productive investment,” he said.

Mr Narasimhan said the fact that Botswana’s GDP growth rate for 2013 was 5.4 per cent gives a positive economic outlook for the country. He said although people should have confidence in the budget speech, growth in revenue was expected to increase more than during the previous year.

He said the last time minerals contributed more than 30 per cent to GDP was in 2003 and that for 2013 it was 14 per cent. “Tourism has been the biggest contributor to the country’s GDP and it is very important to the country’s economy,” he said.

He added that optimism around this year’s budget would be good for small and medium enterprises. He added that they should know the environment they were operating within. He said small and medium enterprises should be aware of issues such as PPADB registration, EDD registration, CA requirements and NBFIRA requirements, amongst others.  ENDS