The Textile Accelerator Programme, officially launched on Wednesday, has been a collaborative project that ultimately seeks to empower citizen-owned textile small to medium-size enterprises (SME) across the country with capacity building, financial support and market access opportunities.
The programme identified 34 SMEs, which have already received machinery to manufacture various personal protective equipment (PPE), along with 18 months of capacity building training to be able to make use of the machinery effectively and efficiently.
Through a partnership with the Department of Mines and the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS), Debswana also ensured that these SMEs do not only manufacture to industrial standards but also manufacture quality products up to international safety standards.
To ensure the success of the programme, Debswana has entered into a three-year contract with the SMEs to have their businesses supply the employees, contractors, and business partners of Debswana with various PPE.
This agreement will ensure that for the first time in history, Debswana and its partners will utilise locally made PPE in their mining projects within the country. With Debswana alone spending over P10 million every year on PPE, these beneficiary SMEs stand to generate significant and steady revenue within this partnership.
The Textile Accelerator Programme, however, isn’t new, but rather the continuation of a programme started in 2020 when Debswana paid P5 million to 60 textile businesses to supply 300,000 facemasks to Debswana employees, contractors, and the police and military forces. The programme’s mask manufacturing investment saw approximately 549 jobs temporarily supported, whereas this PPE manufacturing investment will see 241 jobs supported over a longer duration.
Debswana aims for the PPE investment to ultimately support over 1,000 jobs by 2024, falling in line with the grand Socio-Economic Development Programme, which aims to create and support 20,000 jobs by the end of 2024.
Speaking at the official launch of the programme, Debswana acting managing director, Bakani Motlhabani expressed Debswana’s continued commitment to the growth of the nation’s industrial capacities in the local textile sector and beyond. “What makes this programme unique and impactful is that medium to large companies in the textiles industry were roped in to assist SMMEs in sourcing material, cutting, quality assurance and capacity building. These synergies and collaboration on capacity-building are crucial as mentoring and coaching are a remarkable intervention of ensuring the success of smaller and inexperienced enterprises,” he added.
Minister of Investment, Trade And Industry Mmusi Kgafela acknowledged the roles of LEA and Tokafala in making the programme possible.
“Tokafala focuses on capacity building for existing business enterprises through the provision of business advisory, business monitoring and necessary mentorship services to augment SMMEs’ production capacity and growth strategies. This then allows the beneficiary business entities to meet market demands, carve their own niche and secure long-term contracts, not only as suppliers to Debswana but also to the entire country and beyond its borders,” Kgafela said.
