Reviewing the revised CEDA guidelines

Grand reveal: The revised guidelines were launched recently PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG
Grand reveal: The revised guidelines were launched recently PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG

On July 16, 2020, President Mokgweetsi Masisi launched the revised Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) Lending Guidelines and Requirements.

The guidelines were a revision of guidelines that were launched and approved in 2008. Since then, the Botswana economy has changed drastically necessitating a revision of the guidelines to ensure they are still relevant to the market and clients.

 The guidelines have taken an even bigger sense of importance in the past year. As they were being developed, we have since seen the calls for Economic Transformation taking centre stage in national discourse. The new guidelines therefore, will be very central and relevant for pushing national priorities like Citizen Economic Empowerment, import substitution and most recently the need to reduce the country’s dependence on its neighbours for trade. Contrary to popular belief COVID-19 was not the reason the guidelines were reviewed, but it has thrust them squarely in the limelight and made them more important going forward with the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan. So, what are the main changes to the guidelines?

Editor's Comment
Get back what was stolen, and lock the door

That a single private law firm pocketed P6.5 million for just four cases, out of a total P11.1 million paid for 25 matters, reeks of a system that was not merely disorganised but open to abuse.Bayford has taken a welcome first step by telling the Public Accounts Committee the truth. Now he must act decisively to ensure it never happens again and that any money lost to wrongdoing is recovered.The figures are staggering. Whilst ordinary Batswana...

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