President Mokgweetsi Masisi and Afreximbank president, Benedict Oramah revealed Wednesday at the opening of the Global Expo in Gaborone that Harvey’s investment project will benefit from the bank’s $500 million fund. “We have a programme at the bank called the Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX).
This is a programme we have to support the creative and cultural industries across Africa,” said Oramah. He added that Africa has many people in the diaspora who have plans to set up investments in the continent. One of those is Steve Harvey, who is planning to set up a centre here where he will produce movies and shows not for the US but globally, he said. “That’s one of the projects we will finance under the $500 million creative industry programme. Steve Harvey mentioned that he was fascinated by the opportunity Botswana presents. He mentioned that he realised the production costs could be a fraction of what it is in the US with the people of very high quality,” Oramah added. He said Harvey has been particularly impressed by the country’s low labour and production costs while there is abundant talent and skills. “He was excited and we also are excited to be working with him to realise his ambition to turn Botswana into a major creative industry centre in the continent.” Oramah’s remarks came after Masisi said they had a conversation with Oramah about their plan to fund creative investment plans. Masisi said: “We spoke in length about the fundamentals of a knowledge-based economy that we seek to realise in Botswana especially in the creative arts space.” T
