The authority submitted a total budget estimate of about P164.3 million for the financial year 2011/2012 to the Ministry of Trade and Industry but received only P121.9 million. Presenting the results for the year ended 31 March 2012, LEA CEO Tebogo Matome explained that the organisation's performance score fell by five percent to stand at 69.4 percent against a target performance of 75 percent.
"The shortfall of the organisation is attributed to factors such as lack of adequate financial resources to perform our mandate as per the Small Business Act, the slowdown in the business results of the clients and factors outside our control such as bottlenecks to the developments of the four sub-sectors," he explained.He stated that the organisation has been able to create new investments to the value of P28 million and increase the turnover of clients by P323 million. Total assets decreased from P202.85 million to P180.74 million, attributable to the excess cash from the prior years that went to completing projects such as incubators. Matome explained that non-current assets have increased from P95.76 million to P99.4 million mainly due to the completion of the organisation's projects. He said the organisation was forced to drop some of its initiatives because of the decline in surplus, which was caused by government subventions, which have not increased due to the tough economic situation. "We are not complaining because we know that the restricted capacity was mainly due to the economic recession which affected the country," he said. The organisation also continues to face challenges in retaining staff. It recorded a high staff turnover of 11 percent against a target of seven percent. LEA currently has 78 business advisors and over 600 clients across Botswana. LEA's clientele, SMMEs, are faced with high operational costs attributed to unaffordable operating space.
