Alosa—a wholly citizen youth-owned enterprise—was funded with P500,000 by BDC in March 2021, after it won the BDC’s flagship entrepreneurship development programme dubbed the Business Den in 2020 but it started operating at the beginning of this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the founders of Alosa, Samuel Ntshiwa, a Mining Engineering and Economics graduate, told the gathering that Alosa, which is currently doing well, is planning to automise its operations to increase its output and meet the demand of the market.
The end result of automating its operations, Ntshiwa explained, will benefit the downstream, midstream, and upstream industries.
“We also want to improve the quality of our products and maximise our production in order to grow the local economy. We source our products from local farmers and some foreign companies if they are not locally available,” Ntshiwa said.
Ntshiwa said that Alosa plans to acquire its own fleet of transport in future to cut operational costs of borrowing from other entities.
He encouraged local farmers to sell their produce to Alosa in large quantities to meet the demands of the market, which will in turn stimulate the downstream industry through the creation of jobs, especially for the youth.
Currently, Ntshiwa noted that Alosa employs seven people but it from time-to-time hires around 10 casual labourers if the need arises. Giving a keynote address, the Managing Director of BDC Cross Kgosidiile said that through the initiative of the Business Den, BDC aims to reach out to budding, ambitious and self-driven youth entrepreneurs to allow them to secure funding on a grant basis accompanied by mentorship and networking opportunities.
“BDC was set up to drive projects with commercial viability and sustainability which are the key tenets that are pursued by the corporation in its undertakings as the government’s main investment arm. BDC remains fully committed to fundamentally contributing to the development of a viable, competitive, and profitable manufacturing industry. Through Alosa Group of Companies, BDC will be fulfilling its mandate of promoting citizen economic inclusion, creating sustainable economic diversification and creating jobs for Batswana,” said Kgosidiile.
Other shareholders of Alosa are Tshego and Ludo Ntshiwa who are graduates of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning and Industrial Engineering respectively.
Alosa Feeds manufactures products that range from starter, lactating, weaner, and finisher feed for pigs, goats, sheep, chicken, rabbits, horses, and pets. After beating off competition from 243 other entrants, the group was declared winners of the first-ever BDC Business Den walking away not only with the cash on a grant basis, but also getting mentorship opportunities.
BDC launched its inaugural entrepreneurship development programme in 2020. The Business Den programme aims to reach out to budding, ambitious, and self-driven youth entrepreneurs, to allow them to secure grant funding with mentorship and networking opportunities. The competition was opened to young citizen entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 35, with ideas for either a new or existing business seeking expansion opportunities.
