11 Aug 2020

An impressive business acumen coupled with unwavering optimism and a desire for success keep Mr Jimmy Molwalefhe of Serowe pushing against the odds in his business endeavours.

Mr Molwalefhe, formerly an employee of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), has always aspired to one day be counted among business people of note.

Though the road ahead is still long, he has so far covered considerable distances and is proud of how far he has come.

The journey to him attaining his dream started in his formative years at a family farm in Makoro near Palapye and was triggered by his parents’ love for farming. 

To date and in addition to his many other commitments, he is continuing his parents’ legacy and has kept the farm going.

“The farm in Makoro is where everything started. 

I developed my love for farming there, and everything was inspired by my parents’ intense love for farming,” Mr Molwalefhe explained.

During his 34-year working life, he had an opportunity to attend courses in different countries and it was during his many travels that he looked into the farming sectors of the many countries to which he went.

With passion for agriculture intensifying with each passing year, he decided to live out his dream when, in 1993, he started Mmangwedi Agro-tourism Farm, a stone’s throw from Serowe, across the highway linking the Bangwato capital to nearby Paje. Though started from humble beginnings with no funding from any financier, he steadily grew the farm over the years to bring it to its current state.

At the farm, Mr Molwalefhe keeps cattle and goats, produces livestock feed, does artificial insemination as well as producing and packaging dairy products such as fresh and sour milk as well as yoghurt.

He also rears fish, keeps bees, and has a portion dedicated to fruit production where he grows various fruit trees such as orange, apple, and some avocado.

“I travelled a lot during my years at BDF and every country I went to. 

I made sure I checked out how its citizens did farming. And from those many travels, I brought back a wealth of knowledge that ended up inspiring the way I do things in my farms,” he noted.

In 1994, Mr Molwalefhe started yet another venture, a small horticulture and poultry farm in Moiyabana, this time around through funding from the then Financial Assistance Policy (FAP).

In their infancy, the Mmangwedi and Moiyabana farms proved quite a hit in their respective localities, bringing in considerable business from individuals and government institutions alike.

At its prime, Mmangwedi, which has a dairy component, used to supply major institutions in Serowe such as the local prison, Sekgoma Memorial Hospital, the Institute of Health Sciences (IHS) and the BDF base in Paje with fresh milk.

He said the Moiyabana farm at some point supplied Mothamo Junior Secondary School with chicken, which was supplied ready and dressed from the farm’s on-site abattoir.

Although they held their ground for quite a number of years, Mr Molwalefhe’s farm ventures began to see their returns dwindle in recent years as many Batswana took interest in farming and his market consequently began to shrink.

He said it breaks his heart to see his businesses performing this poorly, despite the potential he knows them to be having.

The hiccups with the market have however, not dampened his spirits as to date he is continuing with his expansion drive; an exercise that he believes will enable his farming businesses to withstand market pressures and have a competitive edge.

“I have since added in some additional facilities at the Mmangwedi farm, the problem now is that corona struck before they could really help turn around things for me. But I’m hopeful that some day things will improve,” he adds.

Mr Molwalefhe has since set up additional facilities at Mmangwedi, these including conference facilities and a camp site.

With the view to improve its output, he has recently put the Moiyabana farm under the care of his younger brother, one Mr Lesetedi Kgaolang, as it had proved quite a challenge for him to single-handedly manage all the businesses.

Impressed by the potential that his farm ventures showed during their prime, Mr Molwalefhe diversified into the hospitality industry in 2002 when he opened Mabogo Inn, a lodge adjacent to the taxi rank in the heart of Serowe.

Mabogo Inn was birthed from the realisation of the great importance of the hospitality industry in the economy.

“When I travelled through work, I came to realise that with a good hospitality industry, you can go anywhere in the world and still live comfortably. 

I came to learn that when you travel, you will need a place to sleep and eat,” he said, explaining how this drove him to setting up the lodge; an endeavor that he managed through a P7 million funding from the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).

Challenges such as lack of funding for further expansion, lack of willingness by locals to work for fellow Batswana, as well as stiff competition are a day-to-day threat to his businesses, but despite all this, Mr Molwalefhe is not about to give up.

“Tota ke tlaa ineela ke tlaa ja eng?” he wraps up, a forlorn look sweeping across his face. 

BOPA