New Entrepreneurship Ministry kicks off with P1bn
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday February 13, 2023 06:00
The bulk of the Ministry’s budget, or about 51 percent, will be taken up by support to the Local Enterprise Authority, the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency and the Out of School youth programmes, which have been moved from other ministries.
The Botswana Meat Commission and the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board have also relocated to the new ministry, but their allocations are yet to appear on the draft estimates.
Besides Mindset Change and Culture, as well as Value Chain Development, other departments in the new ministry include Start-up Services, Enterprise Development and Cooperatives and Cluster Development.
According to draft budget estimates made available this week, the Entrepreneurship Ministry will receive total funding of P1.77 billion between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
For his part, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Karabo Gare said his first priority would be mindset change, which he said needed to be urgently tackled.
“The most important thing to us is mindset change,” he told First National Bank Botswana’s post-budget review on Tuesday evening. “As citizens of Botswana we are sort of used to being given all the time. “Everytime there’s a crisis or something is happening, or say there’s no food or something like, the first question the ordinary Motswana will ask is “what’s the government doing about this?’”
He added: “People hardly ask themselves what they are doing about the situation. “So we have in our mandate or our intention, to work on the issues of mindset change. “That’s our number one priority.”
The minister said his other priorities included value chain development and economic inclusion, saying both of these could lead to greater participation of Batswana in the economy.
“We believe there are a lot of opportunities in value addition, such as when you look at the food imports coming through our borders each year which are about P10 billion. “You will realise that as citizens we have competent farmers and programmes in place to produce the raw materials like beef. “We should be able to add value and reduce our imports and create employment locally. “My third priority is the issue of economic inclusion because it’s important for us as a ministry to make sure that the law passed two years ago is implemented to the letter. “I believe if fully implemented it can actually help our people thrive in the entrepreneurship space,” Gare said.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced the formation of the new ministry last April as part of the rationalisation of government portfolio responsibilities. At the time, he highlighted value chain development and mindset change as being critical for the success of the Economic Inclusion Act.
“It is through this Ministry that we will unlock opportunities for new, high-growth companies in the private sector and youth employment among other citizen empowerment attributes. “The Ministry of Entrepreneurship will identify new sectors in the global export product space that we can successfully grow in Botswana, resulting in significant job creation for our youth while also driving the much-needed export diversification,” he said.