ODC Managing Director, Mmetla Masire, said the number at the recent auction was impressive as this was the first exclusive offer for citizens, despite the fact that no company managed to buy goods during the auction.
“Local participation was sufficient because we have to start somewhere,” Masire told BusinessMonitor. “These discussions of locals participating have been on the cards for quite some time and a lot of people were sceptical.
“Some even didn’t even register at ODC to become customers.” The 10 local companies managed to attend viewing, where they had sight of the rough diamonds on offer, accompanied by their own experts who then valued the goods for them. However, only four managed to proceed to the next stage of transferring funds to finalise the purchases. “No company was successful in purchasing the goods because some undervalued the goods while some transferred the money overnight forgetting that the dollars take three days to clear.
“This was a learning curve for us and the participants and we will work together to do better in the next bid,” the ODC MD said. Masire said since the recent sale, ODC has been registering a lot of enquiries from citizens who want to participate in upcoming auctions. “After the sale they have been coming to register. When they saw us go ahead, the message sank in and that’s why some the day before the auction were trying to transfer money when it was already too late,” he said.
ODC, the state-owned rough diamond marketing company, recently took a decision to reserve a portion of the company’s diamonds for citizen allocation as citizen and citizen-owned companies have consistently failed to progress beyond the first two rounds of bidding for any parcel during the standard ODC auctions. “We have listened to you, engaged with you and seen the results of the survey we distributed through you and we have put something together for you,” Masire told local diamond firms recently.
“We have looked at the sizes of lots, range of goods and we have also looked at the competitive pricing that is a challenge when you are out in the same room as the international players. “We believe with this model, the only challenge will be the cook, because the ingredients will now be in place.” ODC conducts 10 spot auctions of rough diamonds each year, attended by buyers from across the world who bid on an auction basis for the different sizes and types of stones on offer.
The company sources its diamonds from an annual 25% allocation of Debswana’s production, a figure expected to rise to 30% this year when the new deal between government and De Beers kicks in.
