B&M Garments faces closure

The company, which relocated from Mauritius in 2000 at the behest of the Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) and set up in Tonota, started with 200 local employees and they gradually increased to 800 in 2007.

Over the years, there have been significant retrenchments; at one point only 150 employees remained. Those years saw reduced production and a concentration on the regional market only. Chinniah said when the company started, the government’s Financial Assistance Policy (FAP) helped them for five years. That did not help much.