Botswana president gives fillip to local business

Botswana’s current president, Ian Khama, is good news for local business. That’s the view of Oduetse Makgane, director: strategic projects of Zebra Shipping, who believes Khama is making a concerted effort to empower citizens. “Since he took office in April he has been looking at eliminating or eradicating poverty by way of empowerment through ownership. It is looking positive and with time it will develop and local companies will be given preference over foreign companies,” he told FTW. “While we do have the opportunity to tender for the shipping of big projects, the companies are chosen by the company running the project and not by the government. This puts local companies at a disadvantage,” adds Tsimane Brixton Mogami, managing director of Zebra Shipping. Their concern is that Botswana is a very small market and therefore offers limited opportunities for growth. “Today, to survive you need an international network and connections or else you will not be successful in terms of the tender process,” notes Mogami. The Botswana economy is still stable compared to the global outlook and offers many opportunities for growth especially in the mining sector, with new mines emerging at a viable rate. There is however a high level of unemployment and poverty in the country. “The government is trying to alleviate this by getting local organisations to employ as many people as possible, especially in the rural areas. Urbanisation is a major cause as less people are farming; they are not even growing food on a small scale for themselves. The rainy season is coming up but no-one is ploughing,” Makgane added.