We can create jobs by supporting and buying local
Thuso Palai | Monday April 28, 2025 16:36
What exactly does this mean for local products and producers? What can be done to remedy and rally locals to support their local products?
In the last couple of years, there have been measures put in place to raise awareness of local products and services and concerted efforts to rally the nation to know, appreciate, embrace and buy local products.
There is the erstwhile Buy Botswana campaign that waned in the latter years of its existence. Botswana Investment and Trade Centre – BITC then launched the #PushaBW campaign in 2018 to close the gap, and to rally Batswana to support and be proud of their own.
The #PushaBW campaign started off slowly with some resistance, but has since caught on, and to a larger extent put forth a case out there for local products. However, this is just a marketing campaign to rally locals to support and buy local, and the onus remains with us the buyers/consumers to make the conscious decisions to buy local. It is therefore important that we know what our actions or ‘inaction’ in relation to buying local means for those citizens who produce.
Culturally, we tend to lean towards ‘foreign’ products brands that we grew up accustomed to, so it will expectedly take some time to change people’s mindsets to a position where they choose local over foreign products.
As a nation we have to give our local products a chance, the same way we did with the ‘foreign’ brands to eventually get accustomed to. Our consumer behaviour and buying patterns are still inclined and biased towards ‘foreign’ due to perceived better quality and historical brand recognition. This then results in less market share for locally made products.
A quick walk down the aisles in supermarkets will exhibit a 80% (foreign) - 20% (local) bias of products on shelves, and it could be even more skewed. With the visible dominance of ‘foreign’ brands on the shelves, the likelihood is that they will move more. It is common knowledge that we do not produce a lot of variety locally, but that does not discount the fact that even the 20% or so local products on the shelves still move off of it very slowly, something that we can all change as a nation.
One of the key priorities for Government is job creation, especially for the youth. This then throws a challenge to all of us as a nation to make a contribution, and not just for us to look to Government to create jobs. We can assist Government to create those much-needed jobs.
One such avenue is local industry development and increased local production. The more local we buy, the more production, and the more people will eventually be employed to produce. One has an impact on the other, and it starts with local products having a sizeable market share, of which they will have to satisfy. And with increased demand, there will be increased production and eventually more people hired to work in these production lines.
So this is a way that we as citizens can contribute towards job creation, by JUST MAKING THAT CONSCIOUS DECISION TO PICK THAT LOCAL PRODUCT OFF THE SHELF. We can create employment by making that selfish, patriotic decision to buy our own.
Granted, there have been murmurs of ‘quality ‘of local products being somewhat poor compared to foreign substitute products. This is a valid concern, but most local products are up there in terms of quality. Not all local products are of poor quality, and that is another mindset we have to negate. Some are even better than the ‘foreign’ brands we have been accustomed to, and we only have to give them a chance and try them.
Quality improvement is a continuous process, and with the competition of foreign established brands, it is incumbent on local producers to ensure they produce quality that can compete.
There is a lot of benefit in supporting local – employment creation, industry development, source of income for those working in production factories, reduction in import bill, provision of import substitution and a great potential for export earnings when the local products do eventually break through into foreign markets.
So, let’s try local products, lets #PushaBW and let’s create employment.
*Palai is BITC director, Brand Management