Biggest obstacle to creating jobs is bureaucracy, not attracting ‘ditsala tsa bahumi’ :: Mmegi Online

The whole country watched with interest and excitement as Global Expo came and went. As was the trend even in the past administration, the focus was on the big mega projects which were announced to give us hope of jobs and investment. We saw Zotus Group and Dangote Cement announcing billion Pula projects that Batswana looked forward to. This has been as a result of sustained effort from BITC, SEZA and OP in order to attract foreign direct investors and ditsala tsa bahumi to come and stimulate our stumbling economy.

I definitely commend the efforts of all the respective stakeholders doing that work but sometimes it feels like we are missing what the actual problem is in creating jobs and investment in Botswana. It is not finding people and businesses interested in setting up in Botswana. Big money has always been interested in us and rightfully so. We have built the country’s brand and goodwill on being well managed and stable and many businesses including South African ones would love to come here.

Our biggest challenge has always been our systems of capitalising on the interest. Melao ya rona e tobekane, conflicts and fight each other. The interest is there but being able to convert that interest into actual business is where the problem is. Our business ecosystem is terrible and this has always been reflected by our poor results in the “Ease of Doing Business” rankings.