Firms collapse in SPEDU

staff writer | Monday June 1, 2026 06:00

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee of Statutory Bodies on Tuesday, SPEDU acting Chief Executive Officer, Othata Batsetswe, revealed that the closure of the companies between 2021 and 2025 resulted in losses amounting to P79.8 million and the disappearance of more than 200 direct jobs.

Batsetswe attributed the collapse of the businesses to several challenges, including limited market access, cash flow constraints and high utility costs.

“There was no catalytic financing mechanism to de-risk large-scale industrial projects,” he told legislators. “There was also no active private finance architecture, no project facilitation fund, no investment management framework, and no market access mechanism for local manufacturers.”

He further noted the absence of a legally enforceable government off-take framework to protect domestic products against subsidised imports. According to Batsetswe, SPEDU’s manufacturing portfolio during 2021 to 2025 consisted of only 22 enterprises, which he said remains insufficient to create the level of industrial replacement capacity required to fill the economic gap left by the closure of the BCL Mine.

However, he stated that SPEDU, in partnership with the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency and the Local Enterprise Authority, has established a P25 million fund aimed at reviving the 18 companies that had shut down operations.

“We want to resuscitate those companies so that they can return and create meaningful jobs once again,” he said.

In addition, SPEDU has assembled a diversified industrial investment pipeline valued at approximately P6 billion. The projects include e-mobility initiatives, metallurgical beneficiation, the development of a smelter, tailings processing within the region, and agro-processing ventures powered by renewable energy, all aimed at revitalising the SPEDU region.

The CEO said they have onboarded the largest Foreign Direct Investments in the fourth quarter amounting to $45 million from major chemicals manufacturing.

SPEDU has further secured funding amounting to P50 million for the region.

'We continue to solicit for additional funding. “We have applied for P240 million, our target is to get P500 million which will be used to facilitate development in the SPEDU region,' he said.

He added that their manufacturing portfolio in 2021 comprised 22 companies whilst in the 2025–2026 financial year, it had grown to 60 across sectors such as food processing, plastics, chemicals and others.

Meanwhile the acting CEO said SPEDU has 103 plots of which 74 are cottage industry plots, 28 for large scale heavy industrial and one for commercial earmarked for government’s Economic Diversification Drive. Out of the 28 large scale heavy industrial plots, 46% have been allocated to investors, 29% remain vacant, and 18 are reserved for future strategic investments.

He said out of 74 cottage industrial plots, 38 have been allocated whilst 28 remain vacant. Out of the allocated ones, only four are fully developed whilst 89% remain undeveloped or partially serviced.