Oratile Wetshoetsile was one of the graduates who were hoping that they get a decent-paying job from either government or any of the mines.
He moved from one post to another as a temporary employee before realising that this was not sustainable.
It was during the lockdowns that he decided to turn his life around and started researching business ideas to identify the one that would be sustainable. An Electrical Electronics Engineering graduate, he then started a business, OMW Calibrators, but upon realising that the business was expensive to set up he then decides to pivot and come up with a nail manufacturing business.
“I was one of those unemployed graduates who roamed the streets for some time and decided to utilise the skills I acquired at school to sort of meet government halfway by also creating jobs.
I realised that we cannot all be employed by the system and some of us, especially blue-collar, should find ways of becoming employers. I started brainstorming and realised that there is actually a need for nail manufacturing locally.
I wanted to come up with a product that has a market locally and that can easily be funded,” he said. Wetshoetsile said nails are intermediate products that constitute an essential component in the construction industry, carpentry, and wood joinery. “I realised that in the country we relied heavily on importing things that we can actually manufacture locally, this will also help curb the high unemployment rate amongst youth. Currently, they manufacture round head nails in different sizes of two, three, four, five, and six inches.
The Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency was also very helpful by funding them to acquire the machinery, raw materials, and cover necessary costs especially when they opened.
The reception has been overwhelming as we got more support mostly from hardware outlets across the country that buy in bulk to resell. Touching on their expansion plans, he said they will be buying more machinery to manufacture other fasteners.
However, he said they face some competition from locals who buy in bulk from China to resell at a cheaper price. “But I am optimistic because the quality of our product gives us recognition in the market,” he said. He said acquiring raw materials for production has so far been their challenge as their orders normally take longer to reach Botswana.
