Francistown council tackling poverty

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday February 12, 2014 19:48

Moribame said that they started the mobilisation of projects back in 2011 where interested individuals had to register to be funded.

She said those who were interested in possibly getting funding were assessed to check if they really needed assistance.

“In July 2012 we selected 97 interested individuals from 151 Batswana, aged 18 years and above and energetic to run a business.

“We sent them for a three months training in their interested businesses at FCTVE. They were also trained in business management for a week,” she said. She said that some of the potential beneficiaries were assessed, but it was established that they could not be assisted through the programme of poverty eradication, but were rather advised to seek assistance from other government programmes.

Moribame said that majority of the beneficiaries were not skilled in their areas of interest, thus forcing the FCC to train them first.

“We trained 77 individuals who all completed their three months’ course and their projects have been funded and are operating.

Only 10 individuals were skilled and we did not send them for training. Rather, we financed their projects straight away, “ she said.

Moribame said that they had P7,228,955 to finance the projects but used only P4 million because some projects failed to be implemented due to challenges like shortage of land.

“We do not give them money. Rather, after being assessed, interested individuals bring along quotations, which help us purchase material and equipment and then we make sure that the business is running.

“We also monitor their projects, assess their records, how they use money and mentor them for the success of their business, “ she said.

She said that youth are the ones mostly interested in the programmes, and have been funded in large numbers under the poverty eradication scheme and are still applying in large numbers.

“At the moment we have 1,589 individuals on the waiting list. We started the mass assessment on Monday and those who have passed will undergo training as required.

“They will then be funded. We do not know why they are interested in these projects but we suspect it could be that the youth are the ones mostly affected by unemployment,” she said.

Moribame said that they have projects like bakery, upholstery, dressmaking, jam processing, catering, shoe repair, car repair centre, salon and welding.

Another senior official, Moikgatlho Nyatseng who is Principal Home Economics Officer Two, said all these projects are backyard projects because there is a problem of shortage of land in the city.

She said that they could have financed many projects but they hit a snag, as most of the beneficiaries were mobile and hard to locate since the majority of them are renting in town.

“We are faced with chronic shortage of land or space for our clients to operate their businesses. As a possible solution, we have advised them to come together and operate their businesses as a group.

“Elders who are supposed to benefit from the programmes are either enfeebled by age and no longer have energy to operate their businesses.

“They do not have a separate room to operate businesses from,” she said.

Nyatseng said that they only have three projects that have failed and beneficiaries have abandoned those projects, but a majority are doing well with healthy bank accounts.

“They are always updating us about their progress,” said Nyatseng.