Olopeng calls for youth support towards entrepreneurship

Pini Bothoko | Wednesday November 22, 2017 18:22

 

Commenting on President Ian Khama’s State Of The National Address (SONA) yesterday, Olopeng said that the country’s import bill is very high. He said one way to tackle the problem is to encourage Batswana to establish their own businesses and provide products that the country is currently spending millions importing from other countries.

He said that the country cannot diversify and build a strong economy by relying on imports, hence the need to encourage locals to take advantage of initiatives like Economic Development Drive (EDD) to establish their own businesses.

“Unemployment, especially amongst graduates is high, but I think that with everyone’s support we can advise the youth not to expect to be employed after completing their studies, but to take advantages of numerous initiatives that the country has to empower themselves. It is not a secret that the country is faced with unemployment, hence spending a lot of money on imports whilst such products could be produced locally,” Olopeng said.

He called on all stakeholders to support the implementation of initiatives like EDD that Batswana could take advantage of to better their lives as well as to boost the country’s economy. “Let initiatives like that be supported, let it not be just written initiatives that people hear of without having the opportunity to utilise them. If locals could produce good quality products and block importation of certain products, the money that government is currently spending can be used for other important things. If I can be given that money, I would use it wisely to empower the youth. If I can be given that P220 million of imports and add it into P120 million that I have on an annually basis to help the youth it could be better money to be used to call on youth to establish commodities to be exported internationally,” Olopeng said.

He said that government does not create jobs, but rather prepares a good environment for investors as well as entrepreneurs to invest in the country and create jobs for citizens. “What we should be speaking about in Parliament should be to ask ourselves if our policies cater for private sector looking at what we call ease of doing business starting from registering a business to an end. We should however find out if our policies simply support such things, not always saying government is failing to create jobs,” Olopeng said.

He said that about 24,000 youth are into entrepreneurship through the help of Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), hence the need for a collective support on how they should be assisted in order to produce goods that can penetrate the market.

“The country’s purchasing power is also low and as such we should be able to encourage the youth to produce items that can conquer the international markets. We have enough land in Botswana challenging us as leaders to think outside the box, come up with laws that can help the youth to establish businesses of good quality,” he said.

Olopeng highlighted the need for strong and decisive financial and legislative measures to protect the local industry. He cited the need to put up influential legislative measures that can support and improve local industries, as such saving locals from a foreign onslaught. “There is a need to strengthen and capacitate local industries to locally produce some of these imported goods that can be manufactured here through import substitution,” he said.