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BITC Launches PushaBW SMME Road Show To Enhance Local Retail Production

By Chedza Mmolawa

The hashtag #PushaBw was popularised during the Covid-19 pandemic, as it was with the lockdown that Batswana realised that they had to be self-sufficient, and support one another’s local enterprises to survive. Batswana started purchasing goods from each other to keep their businesses afloat. The hashtag #PushaBw could be seen in almost every social media post such that the resultant #PushaBw campaign is a marketing initiative with an ambitious objective of driving a national paradigm shift towards the uptake of local products, thus creating employment and growing the national economy. The campaign was launched in 2018 by Brand Botswana, a national social development initiative under the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC), the nation has recently witnessed the introduction of the #PushaBw Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) Road Show, which is aimed at mobilising Batswana to produce locally made products to be self-reliant in food security.

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The road show intends to generate excitement in end users about the quality and variety of home grown goods they will purchase. Its biggest objective is to drive communities of Botswana to buy

BITC CEO Keletsotsile Olebile

local products, contribute to economic diversification, support local producers, provide public education, grow local industries, and stimulate job creation through local entrepreneurship, and build stronger local brands while accelerating export capacity. BOTSWANA INVESTMENT TRADE CENTRE Speaking at the launch of the #PushaBW SMME road show, Botswana Investment Trade Centre (BITC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Keletsositse Olebile, explained how the campaign targets three key players being the producer, retailer, and the consumer to improve the quality of local products for producers; have more of these products in the shelves of local stores, and for the consumer to consciously choose to buy the products.

After an ongoing three-year journey, a steady increase in the uptake of local products has become visible. As the biggest organ of investment in the country, BITC is beginning to see that “local retailers” are committed to partnering with the government in ensuring the continued listing of local products in their stores. This is one of the positive goals the campaign aims to achieve. ROAD SHOW MECHANICS “The road show is the first steps in activating this commitment to have stores carry products from local business owners. Retailers in partnership with BITC will be travelling across the country to engage local producers to bridge the gaps that have been identified within the requirements to list these stores, especially the quality of their products. Retailers participating are; Sefalana, Trans Cash and Carry, Choppies, Fours, Woolworths, Pay Less, Pick ‘n Pay, and Square Mart. Other partners in this road show are Fairgrounds Holdings, CEDA, and LEA,” narrated Olebile.

Speaking on behalf of the government of Botswana, the Acting Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Honourable Mabuse Pule, explained what this campaign initiated by BITC means for the government and the country as a whole. The primary objective of the #PushaBW initiative is to reduce the import bill, which is currently over P85 billion, through uptake of locally produced goods and services; this is a very significant deliverable of the Ministry mandate.

In 2020, the government put in place the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP) as a response measure towards the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the key deliverables for the Plan is SMME Development, which the road show aims to achieve. Through the ERTP, Government set aside nine hundred and fifty million pula (P950 million) towards SMME development. The ministry implores all local entrepreneurs to engage with these entities and avail themselves during and beyond the road show for capacity development.

The road show was brought about by the fact that most of the retailers are not aware of what is readily available, on the other hand, some local producers are not aware of the requirements, and others struggle to meet those requirements for listing by the retailers. These requirements include, among others, meeting outlined quality standards, consistent and continuous supply as well as competitive pricing.

Pule urges producers to strive for continuous improvement of their systems processes and improve the quality of their products, he encourages them to aim for excellence and suitably for international markets before they reach the local market, meaning their product labelling, packaging and coding should be precise.

The Minister assures Batswana of their support for local production and consumption hence the recent approval of the Economic Inclusion Law and the Public Procurement Law.

These laws are aimed at empowering citizens and decentralising procurement for ease of doing business. The #PushaBW initiative will be further supported through other initiatives with similar objectives such as Botswana Exporter Development Programme (BEDP), the Supplier Development Programme (SDP), and the SME Incubation Programme under Local Enterprise Authority (LEA). Through these initiatives, the government is capacitating companies to produce competitive products to penetrate both the local and international markets.

Acting Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry, Honourable Mabuse Pule

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