30 Apr 2015

LEA director of corporate and stakeholder communications, Ms Boikhutso Kgomanyane, says in an interview that the Authority does not provide loans as some people thought.

Rather, they assist entrepreneurs to develop business plans which are then submitted for funding from various financing institutions. Ms Kgomanyane says other interventions LEA provides include business advisory, training and mentoring. It also promotes domestic and international linkages between SMMEs, government and large businesses, besides facilitating access to markets.

Ms Kgomanyane notes that the authority also facilitates technology adoption and diffusion by SMMEs, and promotes awareness on entrepreneurship amongst Batswana.

Asked whether LEA had succeeded in its mandate, Ms Kgomanyane responds in the affirmative. She says since inception, the authority has had significant impact on many SMME businesses; 14 697 clients have been screened, 8 330 registered, 6 998 jobs created and an investment in excess of P426 million created.

Regarding training, she says 43 893 individuals have attended entrepreneurship awareness workshops while 12 013 have been trained on various courses, coached and mentored.
Since 2007, says Ms Kgomanyane, LEA has implemented three rolling strategies based on development of the SMME community within the four main sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, services and tourism.

“This decision to shift to this strategy was influenced by the organisation’s drive to achieve economic diversification, import substitution and the availability of raw materials in the identified sub-sectors,” she says, noting that “LEA has embarked on a new 2014-17 strategy that encompasses opening up to assist entrepreneurs across all sectors of the economy.

“We are confident that this will yield the desired results”.

On challenges, Ms Kgomanyane cites high pre-operational costs for most SMME projects given high fees in water survey, title deed processing, valuation, architectural plans and Environmental Impact Assessment  studies, amongst others.

She also cites other challenges as shortage of serviced land for some projects, which consequently hinders prestart-ups from venturing into business. The other challenge is a general low entrepreneurial culture amongst Batswana, which she, however, says is being addressed through entrepreneurship awareness workshops.

The workshops expose secondary school leavers, tertiary education learners and other groups to entrepreneurship and starting own businesses as an alternative to seeking formal employment, in the already saturated market.

Ms Kgomanyane further says the average age range of people who seek LEA assistance is the 31-45 age bracket and gender is skewed towards males, adding that the most sort after projects are those in the services sector, followed by agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.

She explains that most LEA assisted projects are located in the greater Gaborone area including Mochudi, Ramotswa and Molepolole, followed by the Central District region.
“The area with less projects is Kgalagadi District region,” she says.

LEA has offices in all major villages and towns across the country, four incubation centers namely the Gaborone Leather Industries Incubator, Pilane Multi-Purpose Incubator, Francistown Industrial Business Incubator and Glen Valley Horticulture Incubator.

Ms Kgomanyane says they continue to realise business from feedback they get from Batswana who benefited from LEA services and interventions. The feedback also serves as encouragement for LEA to continue doing a good job of ensuring enterprises’ competitiveness and sustainability, she adds.

Meanwhile, LEA coordinates and supports a variety of major projects geared towards economic diversification and Ms Kgomanyane is upbeat about some major projects such as the leather park planned for Lobatse, Glen Valley Horticulture Incubator which offers production based training, and Rapid Incubator Project which will be piloted in Gaborone, amongst others.

Ms Kgomanyane assures Batswana that LEA remains committed to entrepreneurship and SMME development in Botswana, “as we empower the entrepreneur to start and grow their business.”

“With the 2014-17 Strategy implementation in progress, LEA now assists entrepreneurs across all industries/sectors of the economy,” she explains.

With the motto Mogwebi re go tlhoma kwa pele there is no doubt that LEA has done a lot for the business community and hopefully in the long run their interventions would strengthen performance and stability of the economy besides protecting small businesses. Ends