Through the budget, the creative arts were identified among key priority areas to stimulate growth and create employment to transform the lives of Batswana.
Industry players have since expressed optimism about the budget proposal saying it would unlock the potential of the creative arts to contribute meaningfully to the country’s economy. Serame proposed a budget of P1.06 billion for the Ministry of Youth, Gender, Sport and Culture, reflecting an increase of 19.4% over the current year’s budget.
Serame said the budget will cover priority budget lines which include arts, sport, youth, gender and cultural activities.
The ministry’s overall proposed budget stands at P1.21 billion, including the P147 million for development. The Finance Minister announced a budgetary provision amounting to P20.82 billion under both the development and recurrent budget, which she said is proposed for game-changing programmes and projects as well as high-value strategic investments.
Furthermore, Serame said the creative arts would get a substantial budget increase of 58.8% for the 2024-25 financial year. “As a developing economy, we will continue to stimulate growth, create employment and focus on sectors with great potential to transform the lives of Batswana. In this regard, I am proposing significant increases of 317 percent for sport development, 280.9 percent for research and development, 58.8 percent for creative arts, while infrastructure development will be increased by 33.5 percent,” Serame said during her budget presentation.
In addition, she said government would establish an Intellectual Property (IP) Motshelo Scheme and an Intellectual Property Ideas Incubation Centre to support indigenous research and innovation. The Scheme together with the Centre would empower Batswana to own and protect their Intellectual Property assets. When commenting on the issue, a serial entrepreneur with business interests in music, entertainment, farming, property, film and multimedia, Seabelo Modibe, expressed his appreciation for how the minister shared ‘the cake’. “This is a welcome development.
But I must say other countries are very far in terms of harnessing the potential of the creative arts. South Africa and Nigeria are perfect examples of countries that have progressed in this, as they are dominating the entertainment space. I’m not talking about doing this domestically but on the international stage.
Mpho Sebina was in SA, but she was suffocated by the market and that’s why she came back. But it doesn’t mean she isn’t talented. There is no proper funding in this space to expand and turn your creative thing into a business that would in turn produce an entrepreneur,” Modibe said He suggested that this should not just be an increase of issuing grants to individuals but to find a model suitable to empower creative businesses to excel and produce more entrepreneurs. He opined that without access to proper funding, the creative arts have been left in the lurch.
“We should go out there and recruit international record companies to set up satellite studios here, find ways to unlock the digital space potential and monetise platforms such as YouTube. We should use this money to fund projects with multiple effects. As a diamond-producing country, let’s take designers such as Glotto and turn them into big jewellers and market them in the international space. The focus should not be about doing projects with domestic appeal but international in nature as the idea is all about taking our creatives outside,” he added.
