31 Jan 2019

Business Botswana vice president - north, Mr Humphrey Nawa, says they  are not expecting much from the 2019/20 budget regarding projects in the vicinity of Francistown.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Nawa, saide closure of mines affected not only those who were employed in the mines but also those who were employed in the retail, hotels, banks, security and other sectors.

He said the closure was sign  that there should be a different approach to doing things and to look for other available avenues.

One of the avenues, Mr Nawa said, was to put money into development of a dry land port in Francistown.

“The interest is very high, I am talking about internally and externally about the port,” he said, adding “right now trucks drive from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) or Kenya to Durban and if this City has a dry port, it would be beneficial to Francistown”.

He noted that improvement of road networks was also paramount since Francistown was a gateway to the north and North East.

He said although the mines were closed, there were other things that could be done to create more employment citing that logistics could create major shift from the mines.

On one hand, Mr Nawa hoped that government would come up with ideas to assist the community with projects that they could venture into, adding that establishment of a port could lead to an improvement in the retail industry, tourism and other businesses. ENDS