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OF KKM AND VACCINE ROLLOUTS

This week was a bit sad to watch. It was deflating to watch how we expended our energy in trying to poke holes into the KKM deal, almost even hoping and praying it’s a scam so it can feed our (very justifiable) hate for SKIK. 

And don’t get me wrong, I loathe SKIK just as much as the next man, but if this deal had “gone through” it would have saved lives, and that to me was the only important thing to focus on. (It also wouldn’t have changed how I feel about him. Heck I might have even looked at it as reparations, though nowhere near what he owes us). 

But for me, being fully behind #VaccinateBotswanai want vaccines in the country yesterday. And no, the announcements of vaccines arrivals in the past few days don’t make me happy. At all. I will not give MoH (and anyone responsible for this) a pass. As a Motswana who has high expectations of what we need to be as a country, I do not accept excuses of why we weren’t all vaccinated by late April or May like Israel. Google the Israel vaccine rollout and tell me why that wasn’t a story written about Botswana. So I will not accept the excuses we have been given and I will never be happy with the current speed of the rollout. 

(PS: I’m not saying Govt should have transferred money to KKM. I’m saying I hope a proper vetting was done in the correct spirit. Because yes, Pfizer will say they don’t have private distributors but they didn’t say the market doesn’t exist. Think about it, with the amount of hoarded vaccines in existence, surely a “second hand” market for these things is eventually going to develop. But obviously bo Pfizer won’t encourage those because that reduces their sales. They want you coming direct to them and they’re happy with other countries having to destroy cos the sale has already been made. Second hand market would mean less money 🤷🏾‍♂️)

We currently have about 200k people fully vaccinated and with the ones that have arrived we will maybe get to 400k people vaccinated. That’s 25% of our target population of 1.6 million. And if we go by the current speed of the rollout, this will take close to 6 months to get us to where we want. That is desperately too slow. That might mean 6 more months of 40 Batswana dying a day? 

So it makes no sense to me how rather than finding ways or praying this KKM thing works, we rather chose to go partisan and work desperately hard to discredit the deal. I do wonder if as a country we truly did our best to explore what KKM was talking about in order to make it work, rather than in order to ensure it doesn’t. 

Because what’s the prize when this deals falls flat on its face? A good laugh at SKIK? (who will continue to be a former President, rich, king of Bangwato regardless of how this goes). Beyond that what do we get? The prize is the current rollout by government and Batswana continuing to die. 

So when the dust settles from the craziness of the 5 days, I do hope that having put egg on SKIK face will be consolation enough when the calls and texts continue to come of our loved ones dying. 

I don’t stand on anyone’s side (especially my King’s). I stand on the side of Batswana getting vaccinated yesterday. And any crook who comes to try and sell me a story, I will definitely hear out and hope for the best, whilst ensuring I do due diligences as best as I can.

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The Middle Class Is To Blame For This COVID Mess Part 2

It seems my quick rant about how the middle class has been culpable in the dire state of public health and education had people thinking and reflecting on how they could have made Botswana a better place. Unfortunately most people took that article and interpreted it as “don’t vote BDP” or “write FB statuses about how much you hate the ruling party”. That was not the point. The article was speaking to active engagement in our governance and democratic process; not waiting 5 years to make your point. 

So what am I talking about? 

How many of us even know where the nearest clinic in our neighborhood is? Do we know it’s state? How it’s staffed? Who heads it and what their needs are? Do we know the challenges of the nearest primary school, CJSS etc? Do we even care? Or do we only care about whether Thornhill and Letlhabile have a good monkeynastix program, do they offer coding or which parents take their kids there cos maybe it’ll boost our kids network in the future? Do we ever ponder on what the growing inequality in our country means and how we’re creating a class divide ya haves and have nots and what this means for the quality of education of your families who are less fortunate? That promise of class mobility most of us enjoyed growing up, May not be possible in future because the state of public education is far worse than what we experienced.

I read somewhere that in Finland, private schools are actually running out of business because public education is so good. There is a stipulation that people must take their kids to the nearest neighborhood school but this isn’t a problem because one has comfort that the nearest school will offer a good quality education. This is not just brought about by government and civil servants but also by the active participation of parents in running of the schools; Being aware and knowledgeable of what’s going on and applying pressure to leaders when things aren’t going right. 

It really also serves a purpose of being a much cheaper model for all of us. It reduces cost of living because you wouldn’t need to feel that pressure of having to take your kids to private schools. Just take a moment and think how different your life would be if you didn’t need to worry about school fees every 3 months. And what would the price be? Just active participation in your neighborhood watch/organization. So if not from a patriotic standpoint, be involved because it would actually make your life cheaper. 

A friend of mine once described their relationship with their councilor (and I think MP) in Gaborone (I think it was the Partial area). They have a neighborhood watch/Organisation and through this they also engage with their councilor. He/she gives updates on discussions at council, motions and gets inputs from them. Once a quarter the councilor and MP give a report back to the group and get feedback on their performance. This group does not base their vote on the lies and engagement of 6 months before elections because they’re engaged the whole time. There is nothing that jolts a politician into action like poor public sentiment. (PS: this isn’t even revolutionary. Remember this is what the CJSS model was meant to be)

Replicating the above model across Botswana would change the relationship of the middle class and our leadership. By participating in giving active objective feedback to leadership on and on-going basis regardless of party affiliation, we would be able to raise the bar on public service delivery in BW. It would reduce inequality and would result in us living much cheaper lives all round because honestly, le a itse gore those 50-100k payouts annually di a sokodisa. 

In relation to specifically this time we’re in, maybe we would have had input on whether an SOE would have been put in place. Maybe the collective pressure would have seen beds and ICU infrastructure bought for your neighborhood clinic. Maybe the clinic would have gotten oxygen machines that the neighborhood could be able to use when individuals were sick. All of this could only be achieved if we were close to our leadership and keeping an active score on their activities and deliverables. Maybe just maybe we wouldn’t have had to have 3 people ba re ba itseng a day ba latolwa. 

This is what we get when we think politics doesn’t affect us 

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The Middle Class is to Blame For This COVID Mess In Botswana

One day…. Not today… one day… you my friends reading this have to acknowledge how you yourself failed this country. O bona rona the “middle class”… we are the main reasons for Botswana’s stagnation and regression in past 20 years…  

Let’s put to the side that y’all are the ones facilitating corruption in procurement, failing government in implementation of policies etc… Let’s put that aside. Our biggest contribution (all of us) is our culpability in this whole mess. 

Re claima go didimala about public issues unless in private. We are the people who have access to leadership, information and could put government and everyone under pressure but what do we do, because we think keeping quiet protects our livelihood, we keep quiet. We tell each gore giving feedback in public messes with the bag. And this then becomes a self fulfilling prophecy since o nna learogi when you speak out. 

This creates a scenario where the middle class hides from Botswana’s problems by bypassing them. We take our kids to private schools and hospitals so we never face how bad MoE and MoH are. So we live in these lives of privilege blinded by what the true state of Botswana is because to us BW ke cappuccinos in CBD and pastas in Phakalane. We’ve never entered the wards of Marina or talked to a CJSS teacher who will tell you that in Gabs his/her students are sharing 4 maths books in a class of 35. That we don’t give out calculators and instruments anymore. That students have to ask their parents to print their end of month tests at home and at work. These poor conditions get to continue because they don’t affect our lives. After all, the teacher, nurse and administrator working in these places aren’t allowed to speak out but thankfully they can afford to take their kids to private schools and they are covered under medical aid so the horrible conditions they work under, their families never have to experience. 

And this arrangement where the middle class acted blind to these problems worked fairly well for everyone in the ecosystem, except of course the poor Motswana. The politician didn’t need to worry because the only people making a noise are the poor wirh no power, the employee in CBD and Fairgrounds could also carry on living month to month hoping for a bonus and praying he/she never lost their job and the (most of the time multinational) corporate providing services and products to Batswana could remain wealthy and pumping out low innovation high cost products. As middle class, we never needed to care. 

Until now. 

Sadly for the middle class, Covid has upset that ecosystem. The employee wa middle class is only being protected by SOE and has to face the harsh reality that they will likely be out of a job within the next year. The Botswana government machine is also slowly grinding to a halt as we can’t afford the unsustainable way we’ve been living for past 20 years. Covid has disrupted the house of cards. Money is in short supply and soon the cracks will start to show. The corporate and businesses dependent on government will in turn suffer as jobs are few and far between and even when you get them, will you get paid in a timely manner? 

To make it even scarier, we are now faced with a health crisis where we have no beds or capacity to take you if you’re sick. We are now all faced by the reality that if you, your family or friends fall sick, you are likely not going to get a bed, nurse, oxygen or doctor assisting you. You have to stay home. So your “silence” when others complained about the health care system is now facing you head on. We are now subject to the mental and health challenges the rest of Botswana has been dealing with as you have lived blissfully unaware of the realities. 

Covid has sadly become the great equalizer. The middle class has to now take an active decision that it has to stand up and demand accountability from everyone including themselves. It no longer serves you to keep quiet. Your pressure is needed. Else we will spend the next year burying loved ones every week. When people cry #VaccinateBotswana, they aren’t doing it to be bad annoying people. It’s for the sake of all of us. We are all being faced by a possibility of death being a few days away. And this is a result of all our silence. We have failed Botswana

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From The Factory Floor to the Shop Shelf: My Journey with BITC

Last year, during the Covid19 related lockdowns as borders closed and we had threats of shop shelves running out of food and consumables, our dependence on South Africa and the need for Batswana to start producing and manufacturing our own consumables was brought to the fore of public debate. It suddenly became apparent to most, why it was important for Botswana to as a society stand up and actively work towards being self-sufficient especially for low complexity goods which we have always imported from South Africa. In 2020 alone, the total import bill stood at about BWP70 billion, most of which was low complexity consumables which went onto our shelves in grocery stores and we consumed on a daily basis. Like many Batswana I started to look at this latent market which I could possibly serve, especially considering that a number of policies and government efforts were already in place to try to make it easier for us to enter the market. 

I therefore started this journey last year and, in a bid, to put together a business plan, I ended up at the Business Intelligence Unit of Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC) where they assisted me with market statistics for both local and international markets. Whilst I was there, I noticed a campaign they were having in trying to reduce our import bill by assisting local manufacturing companies on their journey. I noticed the campaign had been running for the past few years under the name #PushaBW, which aims to promote local products, so earlier this month I decided to go back to BITC to find out more on how they can assist in my quest to supply the local market with my product. 

Any entrepreneur will tell you that their biggest problem is always access to financing but they will tell you an even harder issue to deal with is getting your product in front of customers in the least costly, most efficient and consistent manner. With a market largely dominated by South African retail stores, I had always been told that Batswana products were being refused shelf space in these stores so I went about seeing how BITC can assist me. When I got to the BITC offices in CBD I was directed to the Brand Botswana Department which houses and drives the #PushaBW campaign. 

The #PushaBW campaign was launched a few years ago, refreshing the Buy Botswana campaign. Its main objective is to promote local products by Batswana by giving them a platform to increase visibility and hopefully market traction and sales. This is important because it stimulates economic growth and helps with job creation and reduction of unemployment. The campaign aims to give Botswana products awareness by using the different platforms that BITC has including their social media, including the products in their Botswana Pride catalogues, providing opportunities for the producers to showcase their products at exhibitions, both locally and internationally as well as helping with in-store branding and promotions with select partner companies. 

To get enrolled with the #PushaBW campaign, one has to register with BITC. The requirements are not onerous, as one simply has to submit company details and profiles to BITC and after vetting, they are registered in their database. In the case where it is necessary, the team will also assist with trainings and workshops that try to upskill the entrepreneur on branding and packaging. They will also give your product a Botswana Pride mark to ensure people can see that the product is a locally produced product. 

With regards to market access, the team will assist the producer get access to retail stores, both local and multinationals. In the past, #PushaBW has assisted many entrepreneurs get their products on the shelves of most successfully Squaremart and Trans Africa, though the appetite from stores such as Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths is also great. Unfortunately, to get listed in these stores, the specific stores have basic standards which must be followed for them to list you which we must fulfil. The stores want to be assured of consistency of supply and quality (normally implies BOBS, SABS or NAFTEC approval in terms of food related products). They would also expect to see branding and packaging at a particular standard, a barcode and ingredients listed on the packaging. These requirements differ from shop to shop but generally they allow for listing in any shop and also are a great springboard when wanting to enter other markets where these are legal requirements. When ready, the BITC team facilitates meetings for the producer and buyers from the shops and also sits in negotiations to assist in any manner that the producer needs. 

All of these preparations give an excellent foundation for when you finally want to take on the world with your product. At that point you would be moved to the Export Development and Promotion Department who would give you similar assistance in the region and internationally. The producer would be enrolled in the Botswana Exporter Development Program where you would be capacitated and assisted to improve product quality, branding and packaging, production and getting up to buyer requirements and standards. Similarly they would also give access to and facilitate relationships and meetings with international companies who can consume your product. 

After the visit to the BITC offices, I felt like I had a clear vision and path on what I would need to do to grow and serve my product’s market, firstly at home, then internationally. For the first time, I felt confident that you will see my product in the biggest retail stores alongside local success stories like The Bulb World, Just Ginger and Maungo Craft. Before this journey at the beginning of last year, I didn’t know how integral to my journey BITC would be but it has become clear that they will be a long lasting partner in my story.

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Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan: A Call to Action

This article was first published in Mmegi Newspaper on 26th June 2020. Due to the announcement of a $250 million loan from World Bank to Botswana to fund the ERTP, it is worth revisiting this article.

Earlier this week we received what is supposedly a draft version of a policy document called The Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan being worked on and lead by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MFED). This document is meant to be the roadmap by Government to stimulate and shock the economy out of the worst economic crisis Botswana has ever had and was prepared by a committee lead jointly by the Governor of the Bank of Botswana and the Permanent Secretary of MFED with inputs from various entities such as BOB, MITI, BIDPA and UB amongst others. This policy document acknowledges the devastation to productive capacity and subsequent loss of income from companies and individuals especially in sectors such as mining, agriculture, trade, hotels and restaurants and the informal sector and tries to provide solutions to jumpstart the recovery of the country.

Before COVID19 hit, Botswana was already on a transformation path with Vision 2036, NDP11 and other Transformation policies such as Citizen Economic Empowerment already being worked on. What this current ERTP aims to do is speed up the implementation of these policies. Its main objectives are to support restoration of economic activities and incomes, facilitate growth and accelerate transformation agendas in bid to take Botswana to high income status by 2036. The ERTP would try to address the challenges as noted in the NDP11 midterm review of declining economic growth, a deteriorating fiscal position, the need to diversify exports and the economy, mitigating uncertainties around the diamond industry’s future and high unemployment.

The basic principles that drove the ERTP are to tackle issues in the short, medium and long term by using a counter cyclical stimulus to replace lost activity whilst staying aligned with existing aspirations to accelerate the transformation agenda. The policy also had to be cognisant of fiscal constraints I.e. ensuring maximum effectiveness, sustainability and to avoid direct government funding where possible. There should also be scope to accelerate privatisation and capacitate private sector whilst ensuring we build economic competitiveness I.e. reduce costs of production, improve efficiency and develop research and innovation capacity in order to develop productive capacity. The prescribed policy responses basically would fall into 4 categories being Regulatory and legal reform, Policy actions, redirection of recurrent spending and Development projects.

Below are a select few sectors and actions envisioned by the ERTP:

Agriculture

Covid19 has heightened need and urgency for food security. Envisioned projects include creating horticulture clusters in Selebi Phikwe and Shashe and possibly Masama and Mogobane. This would entail building nfrastructure such as roads, housing, internet etc to encourage production in those areas. Food grain production in areas such as Barolong farms, Pandamatenga and Tuli Block to be assisted especially with funding via NDB and CEDA. Speeding up of the liberalisation of the beef sector and setting up of a Meat Regulator would be prioritised.

Tourism

Botswana’s dependence on foreign tourists has proved disastrous and the promotion of local tourism is definitely necessary. This includes policies to speed up unexploited sites and reduce pressure on Northern Botswana by developing other tourism destinations. Ease of regulation to promote agro tourism is also prioritised.

ICT

In line with Botswana’s aspirations for digital transformation and spring boarding into the 4th Industrial Revolution, ERTP aims to revolutionise the ICT landscape by creating an enabling environment for development. The ERTP does recognise past failures especially in the execution of eGov and implemention of laying enabling infrastructure. These would hence be prioritised with a view that these would revolutionise service delivery in education, health, retail, cashless society, tax collection etc. Government is also looking at introducing a Digital biometric Omang and digitizing Land management which would have resultant major implications for developing a supporting industry and curbing unemployment.

Other sectors touched on in the document include education, mining, manufacturing, health, the informal sector, the creative sector and also setting up a function to improve Botswana’s implementation, monitoring and evaluation capacity to ensure successful implementation.

One of the biggest challenges that will face the implementation of the policy is how to fund it. COVID19 responses and loss of revenue have already created a P20 billion deficit with the ERTP expected to need another P20 billion to fund it sufficiently. Domestic borrowing is currently at 7.5% of GDP with legal limit of 20% allowing government to have the ability to borrow P15 billion from domestic market with another 15 billion that could be sourced from insurance companies, pension funds and banks. The government is also considering a possible draw down of P5billion from Foreign reserves with a potential also to seek funding from development funding institutions. Speeding up of getting our ducks in a row could also create potential to fund some projects via PPPs. Similar to what was mentioned in the 2020 Budget Speech, consideration must also be given to adjusting taxes and levies.

So what are my initial reactions to the ERTP?

Firstly I’m impressed by the speed and urgency this issue has been treated with. This does show that the Government is trying to stay ahead of the curve of the possible destruction looming in our economy. That said, the ERTP is effectively nothing new (which is not a bad thing as its clear its a consolidation of existing plans) meaning it does inherit some of the blind spots from original documents used to put it together. I do however welcome the approach of consolidation because that makes it simpler for stakeholders to implement even if does bring questions of how existing transformation committees will feed into it.I do however hope that since the document is supposedly a draft, there will be ample opportunity to do proper consultation and feedback. The document is very high level and lacks in detail, broadness and fresh thinking so I do hope individual industries will be able to design more detailed documents to avoid a top down and ensure buy in of different stakeholders. Some of the industries and interventions were very thin e.g. sections on the creative industry, improving Research & Development, SME development and improving procurement. Another big blind spot was it wasn’t clear how Citizen Economic Empowerment will be encouraged by the policy though it is mentioned as one of the major objectives. Lastly and most worryingly, the question of implementation remains. No one ever doubts the brilliance our government has in policy development. Unfortunately we do not have a great track record in implementation and change management though I choose to take a positive outlook this time as COVID19 has forced us to check our complacency. Overall, the policy is a good starting skeleton that will benefit from individual stakeholders adding meat to its bones in the coming months.

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Funding the Budget Deficit using Govt Bonds: A Conundrum

On 1st February 2021, the then Minister of Finance, Honourable Dr Thapelo Matsheka read out the 2021/22 Budget Speech for the Republic of Botswana. One of the biggest, most critical issues from the budget, was a never-before-seen budget deficit of P6 billion (about 3% of GDP). Combined with a revised deficit of P21 billion for year 2020/21, this meant that government was short of money to be able to run its programs and commitments this year. Minister Matsheka also announced his plans on how he would cover that shortfall using the following avenues: borrowing from local investors by issuing bonds, borrowing money from external lenders, tapping into foreign reserves and increasing taxes and improving collection of levies etc.

Consistent with the strategy, since January 2021 Government has attempted to raise P4.5 billion by asking local investors to buy government bonds at auctions held on a monthly basis. Govt has only successfully raised P1,549 billion (30%) of what it has intended. In the 14th May 2021 edition of Mmegi, the Governor of the Bank of Botswana, Mr Moses Pelaelo decried the low uptake or interest in government bonds (essentially lending money to Government). The Governor expressed that they will undertake an exercise to find out why investors seem to not be interested in the bonds though they have asked for them in the past. This article therefore will try to explain this phenomenon and what Govt might need to do in future to make its effort to raise funds for the deficit more successful. 

Firstly, let us examine how Government attempts to borrow money from investors. Government via the MoF gives an instruction to BoB on how much it would like to borrow from investors in a particular quarter. BoB then checks sentiment with local investors via discussions with commercial banks. A large part of this, is that MoF and BoB will also monitor where trading on the BSE is of these bonds. So they will see that a bond of say, 10 year is currently priced at P25 so they will expect to be paid similarly when they go to auction. Unfortunately very little trading happens because the commercial banks who are primary dealers have no real interest in trading or developing the market. BoB then announces how much it would like to borrow, for how long and at what interest rate. This is what is termed issuing bonds. Investors then bid at an auction at the price they see fit to purchase those bonds (these bids will almost always not reflect the information shown by trading on the BSE as discussed above). The person offering BoB the best prices will be awarded those bonds which are then listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange and can be traded until the time on their contracts elapses. 

So it is very possible that investors will express interest in bonds but bid at prices that BoB sees as unpalatable and therefore will choose not to honour and take up the bids. This is what has been happening at least for the past year. Why is this the case? The answer lies in how bond market investors make their money. 

The biggest issue a bond investor has to worry about is how they believe market interest rates will behave over the life of the bond. Say BoB issues a 6-year bond like they did on May 2021. Bond investors have to forecast what they think will happen to interest rates between now and 2027. Botswana is now currently at the lowest interest rates it has had in its cycle so it is easy to forecast that interest rates will go up in the next few years. Unfortunately due to how bonds work (the explanation is too complex for this article), it means when interest rates go up, bonds will reduce in value and an investor would lose money. To avoid this problem, an investor has to price their bid at an auction lower in order to compensate for the losses they forecast to experience in the future. This isn’t necessarily an issue in other countries that have a more developed bond market that have mechanisms to ensure investors can make money when interest rates go up or when they go down. In Botswana, you can only make money in one direction, which is down (another complex issue beyond the scope of this article). 

This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that Botswana recently got downgraded by Moody’s (see previous article in Mmegi or on my website about credit ratings) which means investors now view Botswana as having increased risk of not being able to pay back its commitments to investors. The increased risk would have made investors want to be compensated for the additional risk they are taking so this would have lowered the price they bid even more.

The implication of this is that investors would be happy to invest in Government bonds but only at prices that they are comfortable that they wouldn’t lose money in the long run as interest rates rise. Unfortunately for government this would mean if they were trying to raise P4.5 billion, they may only get paid P4.2 billion at those prices but be expected in the long run to pay the full P4.5 billion back. So essentially this is the conundrum we are facing as a country and in the bond markets. Due to the undeveloped nature of our market, we are now faced by 2 competing forces: Government wants to borrow money from local investors but is in somewhat denial of what investors want because this would mean they take on more expensive debt. On the other hand, investors want to invest in government bonds but at these level of interest rates, they’re afraid that the only way for interest rates to go is up, which would make them lose money; so they choose to bid as low as possible to compensate them for “guaranteed” future losses. This leads to a stand-off.

Unfortunately for the average Motswana, this standoff means either the Government won’t be able to get funded by local investors and therefore the government could struggle to pay for commitments meaning Batswana would suffer. On the other hand, if investors pay at the price level that the Government wants, this means that years from now the investors would lose value and money which would affect the average Motswana because this would affect the values of their pensions and pay-outs. 

This conundrum wouldn’t exist if the country had a fully functioning developed capital market and whilst the easy blame would be to look at the Government or the BSE, the reality is that the under development is created by a lack of interest in its development by the commercial banks and the investment industry. The reality is that the market participants have been able to be profitable without being innovative (as has been the criticism levelled at commercial banks for many years). They’ve never had an incentive to want to put in the work to develop our markets. 

Until the market participants are forced to stand up and play their true role, we will continue to be saddled by the current conundrum. In the meantime, Government will have to continue scratching their heads on how to access the investment funds sitting in our capital markets.

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Moody’s Downgrades Botswana’s Credit Rating: Should The Average Motswana Worry?

On April 23rd 2021, Moody’s announced that it was downgrading Botswana’s long term debt credit rating from A2 with a negative outlook to A3 with a stable outlook. It should be noted that that the rating had been adjusted in May 2020 from A2 with a stable outlook to A2 with a negative outlook, essentially forecasting the current downgrade. Previously Botswana had been rated as A2 and stable since November 2011 but has been on A2 since 2001. The question therefore is what does this all mean, is it significant, how will it affect us as Botswana and should we be worried?

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Botswana’s Economic Evolution and Covid-19: The Case of BITC

12 months into the Covid-19 pandemic, which has proved to be the worst health and economic crisis of the last 100 years, we look on and try and find the lessons and silver linings from the past 12 months. As Botswana, we have had to grapple with a lot of issues about the state of our country and economy. Covid-19 brought some critical issues to the fore such Citizen Economic Empowerment and participation in the economy, our over-reliance on South African imports when it comes to self-sustenance. Couple these issues with the disruption being caused by technology as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the increasingly challenged fiscal position in the country and 2020 proved to be a perfect storm that created the biggest explosion of uncertainty we have ever witnessed but also provided for excellent opportunities to re-think ourselves and emerge stronger like the phoenix. 

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BOTSWANA NATIONAL INFORMAL SECTOR RECOVERY PLAN 2021: A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

Almost 12 months ago, on 2nd April 2020, a National Lockdown was announced by His Excellency Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi. The lockdown lasted 7 weeks, finally being relaxed on 21st May 2020. During this time movement was restricted and due to the restrictions, the Government of Botswana attempted to assist businesses and individuals against the resultant economic knock. Through the Ministry of Trade and Investment, an Economic Response Plan was instituted that attempted to assist businesses with the resultant short term cash flow problems resulting from the health restrictions imposed on the economy. Whilst the plan was multi-pronged and comprehensive, unfortunately it had a major blind spot of “missing” the informal sector in Botswana and hence potentially overlooking the biggest category of people affected by the lockdowns.

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4IR & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION – WHAT THEY ARE, WHAT THEY MEAN FOR BOTSWANA AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE.

Since his first inauguration in April 2018, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Botswana Dr. MEK Masisi, including his inauguration speech 2 weeks ago, has consistently cited that a key strategic imperative for the future of Botswana is facing up to the challenges and harnessing the opportunities that will arise from the 4th Industrial Revolution and transforming the economy to a knowledge based one. This will most surely be one of the key points he will touch on during his State of the Nation Address on Monday 18th November 2019.

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FUNDING THE BOTSWANA TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: REVIEWING THE REVISED CEDA SPECIAL SECTOR GUIDELINES

On 16th July 2020, His Excellency The President of the Republic of Botswana, Dr MEK Masisi launched the Revised CEDA Guidelines in Gaborone. One of the newest aspects of the Guidelines was the introduction of special sectors to be funded in line with the country’s strategic intents. These sectors include Manufacturing, Technology and Innovation, Construction, Agriculture, Creative Industry and Tourism.

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