‘Skills development first’

Empowerment and skills

development should top

the priorities list in Botswana,

according to Lucas Barreto,

chairman of the Botswana

Freight Forwarders’ Association.

“Logistics is not a career that

is well-known and many people

enter the industry with no

training whatsoever.”

And in his view logistics needs

to be introduced at school level to

children making career choices.

“Often when people think

logistics they think truck driver

and that is not the case. We

have to focus on improving the

skills level in our industry and

encouraging young people to

choose logistics as a career.”

He said it was also important

to develop the necessary

facilities for training and skills

development.

“Customs does a lot of in-house

training but there is no facility

or establishment where someone

can go to learn and really get

to grips with the Botswana

customs rules and regulations.

It is all learnt on the job and so

there are often issues around

interpretation. We

need experts who

really understand

and are able to interpret the law

correctly.”