Gov't prioritises F/town for enterprise development

Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Friday April 5, 2019 12:32

Serame said that there are facilities such as Lekgaba Centre in the second city that need to be refurbished to provide the much-needed space for Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) to operate.

She said this at a recent SMME Pitso and Fair, held at the Francistown Industrial Business Incubator.

In her address Serame told multitudes of entrepreneurs and delegates that over the years, LEA has demonstrated the potential of the incubation programme as a worthy model to inculcate entrepreneurship and accelerate enterprise growth.

She added that LEA has developed a Supplier Directory to promote market access by all enterprises and a standards catalogue, which contains standards of all goods and services.

“We are also scaling up efforts to assist SMMEs to access markets both locally and externally. It is in the spirit of the above that export-ready enterprises are enrolled in the Botswana Export Development Programme,” she said.

She added that the enterprises would be enrolled through collaboration with other partners and private sectors to promote SMMEs by listing their products and services on one-platform and conducting market streets on a quarterly basis to promote locally produced goods and services.

Serame also encouraged Batswana to support locally produced goods and services by purchasing them.

“SMMEs should also come up with innovative products and services. They should do something revolutionary and transformational so that they are able to attract local buyers,” she said.