Debswana, Bank Gaborone deal yields P850m value
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday June 25, 2021 15:38
Debswana’s acting supplier development manager, Resego Keipidile said 28 citizen-owned companies had benefited thus far under the diamond group’s Citizen Economic Empowerment Programme (CEEP). The partnership is a pilot of a model Debswana wants to further roll out in its efforts to empower citizen-owned businesses and enable them to better access the diamond group’s procurement budget. The supplier development programme under the CEEP involves Bank Gaborone funding and mentoring citizen-owned businesses to enable them to better participate in Debswana’s procurement budget. “The programme is targeted at creating opportunities for citizen-owned companies in the mining industry,” Keipidile told the recent launch of the CEEP in Francistown.
“Through this model, we want to develop the whole value chain of the equipment and services we use for mining in Debswana.
“We have estimated the value chain through manufacturing, production, logistics, storage and handling of equipment and we want to ensure that the money we pay for these products and services circulates in the country through citizen-owned companies.” Debswana expects to procure up to P350 million through the CEEP and assist in the creation of 450 jobs in the first phase of the model. For his part when giving an introduction on the CEEP head, Wanatsha Moakufi said the programme’s returns are expected around the entrepreneurial capacity building as well as stakeholder collaboration, development and diversification.
He stated that Debswana’s overall goal is to deliver a value of P20 billion by 2024 with the creation of 20,000 jobs in the downstream economy.
Last year, the diamond giant spent P2.2 billion on citizen procurement, which met the target of 35% of total spend.
“This year, the target is 40% citizen spend, which means that we need to look at our long term contracts and for those that lacked citizen participation, citizens must come through,” Moakufi said. “We have identified key specific projects to say where we can get the value we want in the year 2021.”