BDC Closes Call For Den of Africa Pitches
Pauline Dikuelo | Monday June 29, 2020 15:57
The government’s investment’s arm said through the competition, entrepreneurs will be given a opportunity to submit their ideas to a panel of successful business people in Botswana and stand a Chance to win up to P500, 000, mentorship and regional business networking opportunities.
'We will be backing scalable ideas that have the potential to export across the African region. Only shortlisted entries will be invited to pitch and only winner will be awarded funding,' BDC said.
The competition is open to 100% youth owned Botswana companies with promoters aged between 18 and 35. Both start ups and existing businesses qualify for this opportunity and all sectors will be considered.
The Corporation had earlier revealed their plans to spend up to P750 million on various new projects bolstered by resurgent finances and an P800 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
In March, BDC and AfDB signed a P900 million thematic Line of Credit for a 10-year tenor. The AfDB loan which required a sovereign guarantee from government was once stalled, awaiting the green light from lawmakers who required more details on the investments that BDC was undertaking.
The injection will support the BDC’s long term strategy to scale up its investments in key sectors including manufacturing, transport, agriculture agro-processing and service sectors with the objective to support transformation and industrialisation of the economy.
The transaction further supports BDC’s focus on safeguarding its balance sheet to ensure financial sustainability whilst fulfilling its mandate as the government 's main investment arm.
Over the just ended five-year strategic period, the Corporation has transformed and driven exceptional results as evidenced by P700 million growth in the net-worth of the business to an impressive P2 billion, cumulative profits of P1 billion and asset base growth to P4. 8 billion amongst others.