Private Sector Urges BNPC To Review Strategy

By Frederick Kebadiretse
Staff Writer | Monday January 25, 2010 00:00

Participants at a breakfast seminar organized by the BNPC in Gaborone last Thursday said the centre should invest more resources in getting the relevant information and benchmarking at global level in order for their mandate to be beneficial to the private sector.

Contributing to the discussions at the seminar, Debswana Group Manager (strategy) Boyce Sebetela said BNPC should conduct intense quality and productivity research in various areas of the private sector, and then engage them so that they can follow.

'If you put a lot of effort in global benchmarking index and getting the correct information, hit us with the information and there is no way we will not follow you,' Sebetela said.

For her part, Botswana Confederation of Commerce and Industry Manpower (BOCCIM) Executive Director Maria Machailo-Ellis said BNPC should shift their mandate to accommodate individual players of the private sector, but keeping in touch with the dynamic world. Machailo-Ellis added that the world is always changing, and therefore it should be the mandate of the BNSC to always be alert to the changes in order to implement them in the private sector to be at par with the rest of the world.

BOCCIM and the BNPC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year September to ensure that the campaign on productivity is not only focused on the public service, but include the private sector as well. 

Another participant from the private sector Mr. J. Kgengwenyane advised the BNPC to be careful in trying to adjust their approach towards productivity in the private sector to avoid failure at an earlier stage.

Kgengwenyane said it is important to learn from previous experiences and plan basing on them. He said the BNPC should first identify the right forums and strategies to address issues of productivity at macro level.

Responding to some of the questions asked by participants, BNPC's Dr. Phumzile Thobokwe said the BNPC appreciates very well the role of research in the modern world.
She said they try by all means to get relevant information from stakeholders, but they often face challenges of getting delayed data, which may be no longer relevant to the current settings. Dr. Thobokwe said they are still assessing ways in which they can make a break in individual companies in the private sector before benchmarking so that they would be able to benchmark at industry level. She said the other challenge they face is lack of finance, which makes doing research at macro level a bit difficult.

The seminar was a follow up to the first one, which was held in 2008, and its major purpose was to review some resolutions that were made during the previous one.

Earlier on, Productivity and Quality Awareness Programmes Manager at the BNPC Teedzani Majaule outlined the objectives of the productivity movement to the participants. Majaule acknowledged the facts laid out by the participants and promised to come back to them with answers in the not so distant future.

Acting Executive Director of BNPC Mr. Chandna Parmond said they have made some strides in corporate governance over the years and they will work hard to enhance productivity in the private sector.