FCCS to go into property business

Lebogang Mosikare
Correspondent | Monday June 24, 2013 00:00

Smarts, also the National Chairperson of Botswana Cooperatives Society.(BOCA), said they have already paid P100,000 to Francistown City Council for their plan to be approved. He said after city authorities approve their plan they will demolish their old building in the Central Business District (CBD) and construct a new structure that will be leased out to tenants for office space. Shabani said they will ask for funding to construct the new building from various financial institutions.

He added: 'We will need between P4 and P5 million to construct the new building.'He said currently Chinese traders who sell various products to the public rent their old building, which is a structure situated on a piece of land measuring 675 square metres. He said they will build a flat in order to accommodate many clients at the new building.

Shabani said they decided to venture into the lucrative property business because they have discovered that many cooperatives in the country demised because they did not diversify their product base.'A lot of cooperative movements collapsed because they relied on one product for business survival. A lot of cooperative movements have since their formation after independence relied on the agriculture industry. 'They could not withstand competition from foreign owned businesses that sold a variety of products,' said Shabani.Shabani said their plan is in line with the Cooperatives Data Analysis System.

This is a systematic strategy that was conceived to identify factors that led to the collapse of the cooperatives in the country. The system, launched in Selebi Phikwe at the beginning of the year,  recommends how the cooperatives can be resuscitated to become competitive business entities.He said the strategy will soon be rolled out throughout the country in one year.The City Clerk Charles Amos referred this publication to the Department of Buildings and Physical Planning when contacted for comment. Efforts to reach the department were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.