The toils of citizen entrepreneurship
Mbongeni Mguni - Pauline Dikuelo | Monday February 23, 2026 13:14
At some point in 2022, hopes were bright that Payless would usher in a new crop of citizen entrepreneurs in the cut-throat retail sector.
Citizen-owned Ellis Retail, itself owned by Acute Global Limited, had finally sealed the takeover of Payless, the struggling Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) chain which was saddled with debt and on the brink of collapse.
Plans were made for greater shelf space for citizen products and for a while, it appeared Payless would hold its own against the titans in the FMCG space, some of whom are heavily capitalised household brands from South Africa.
In his endeavours, Elliot Moshoke, the CEO of Ellis Retail and also group CEO of Acute, was walking down a path several other Batswana have attempted to over the years. Previously, one entrepreneur attempted to crowdfund a citizen FMCG group, with little success.
Others have attempted to break into the tightly woven, highly competitive industry in one way or another, but failed in their attempts.
In the years after the expansion of Choppies and Sefalana, which are citizen-owned, other Batswana have battled to secure equity handholds in the FMCG sector.
This week, Moshoke told Mmegi that after fighting for survival for a few years, Payless had officially gone under and with it, millions of Pula in investment as well as 360 citizen jobs.
“We have written Payless off as an investment, an investment that didn't go well in our portfolio,” he said. “We put in quite a substantial amount of money into that, I think in excess of P40 million both from acquisition to capital injection.”
The local FMCG sector has a unique structure. It tends to have vertically integrated structures which either control or have influence from producers and suppliers, all the way up to distribution.
Over the years, the retail giants have swallowed smaller entities as well as activities such as independent bakeries and butcheries, developing a “under one roof” departmentalised structure. In recent years, many of the titans have also developed in-house capacity for many consumables, producing affordable house brands and ‘combos” that further tighten competition for wannabe new entrants.
Moshoke found out the hard way that the sector is riddled with barriers against citizen entry.
“Not for a second have we ever thought that we are not good investors or not good investment analysts. “The team made a good assessment of the investment and the market, but what we did not anticipate was what I normally call the ‘retail cabal’ which controls the retail space.
“The cabal has completely captured the entire value chain from manufacturing to owning the shelf space and even to the point where other manufacturers are closed out of the retail space of some other operators. “I've seen someone making flour and other grains that were completely closed out from shelves to say you cannot sell that. “I don't know how that is fair competition where you have you have a retailer that is into manufacturing.”
The entrepreneur also bemoaned the licencing regime in the sector that allows a retailer to also operate as a wholesaler, while also having manufacturing capacity.
“That doesn't open up the market and then we will keep on crying about unemployment because there is no opportunity to create employment by different players bringing different communities into the shelf space. “When it comes to cooperatives and the informal sector, even as big business, we need about the fact that those people need to survive. “For them, when they make a sale, it's not so that they can go for a holiday but so that they can put bread on the table, so that they can buy a uniform for their child. “But another guy makes a profit of P1 billion so that they can go for holidays.”
Moshoke’s painful experience with the Payless venture is worsened by the troubles the group faced in mobilising capital for the acquisition and working capital. He recalled being sent from pillar to post by a government-owned development finance institution, when attempting to secure funding to acquire and revive the supermarket.
“At one point we needed extra funding to bridge the funding gap that the business needed. “So we went to a local DFI with an application for a P50 million facility. “It took us 18 months being given a promise almost every week, each week a promise and a few questions, then another promise until they told us, no ‘we can't fund you,’ even though a local commercial bank had extended a P6.5 million facility to us. “When a commercial bank has already assessed a business in that manner, what about a development finance institution which should even be quicker to bridge the gap?”
Today, the Acute Global Group has expanded its portfolio to cover areas such as business development, investment management and debt restructuring, as well as sectors such as insurance.
Early last year, the group’s subsidiary, Boago Emerging Markets, recapitalised Westlife Insurance Botswana (Westlife) with P20 million, helping it to officially exit statutory management after two years in limbo. Boago also injected P10 million into Westsure Insurance Botswana, Westlife’s short-term insurance business, with the funds designed to drive expansion and innovation.
Moshoke says Acute has the teams and expertise necessary to look into and exploit a range of opportunities in the pipeline.
“Plans are afoot to look at the entire insurance space including credit life on the bank assurance side. “We believe that we are strong in managing financial services businesses as we have been through all that one can go through, with businesses going under but coming out stronger showing that we have been tested through the fire. “We are also seeing huge opportunity for growth in the agro-processing space, both human and animal food, given that we understand how the retail segment works. “We also think that there is value in the energy space and we will be looking at opportunities in the energy space as a group,” he said, adding that a team had been built around the latter.
The onboarding of skills and the experience over the years, both good and bad, allows Acute to dream bigger, Moshoke said.
“We are quite bullish on grabbing business onto our books,” he told Mmegi. “We are targeting big businesses that we couldn't previously look at. “We've got the ability and the balance sheet to handle some of the large portfolios and our businesses are growing steadily. “We have very strong management teams and from the governance side, we have full boards on our businesses with diverse experiences. “We have an experienced chief investment officer so that all the investments are properly made.”
After his travails over the years, Moshoke is confident about Acute’s future. Even with the optimism, there is sorrow over the failed Payless venture.
“We feel we owe a huge apology as business promoters to our former employees, those 360 people,” he says. “If maybe times were different, we would be saying a different thing and if the DFI had come through, we would be saying something different. “However, we cannot completely put the blame on other people. “Perhaps there was something that we did not see, which maybe someone could have said, no, you are not seeing this. “We are always open to feedback because we have learned through feedback.”