Ticano Group: Championing Financial Inclusion For People With Disabilities

Ticano Group:

Championing Financial Inclusion For People With Disabilities

By Bakang Thuso

Ticano CEO, Opelo Motswagae

One of Botswana's fastest-growing financing companies, Ticano Group recently launched its flagship Corporate Social Investment (CSI) project, a disability financial support program focused on empowering People with Disabilities (PWDs) by extending financial support to them to fund their purchase orders. Purchase order financing is an effective short-term financing tool when you are short of cash to pay for goods or materials needed to fulfill a customer's order.

Executive Director, Opelo Motswagae a young

Motswana passionate about entrepreneurship mentoring and providing unique and creative financial solutions realized his dream of operating a Purchase Order

Financing company in 2015.

CONTRIBUTIONS TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE

DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Dubbed the Ticano Financial Programme for People with Disabilities, the program is aligned to the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Leaving No-one

Behind. According to the United Nations (UN), Leave

No One behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its sustainable development goals.

They represent the unequivocal commitment of all

UN Member States to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination, and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and humanity as a whole and Ticano Group is keen on making a positive impact on the community of people with disabilities by actively advocating for their inclusion.

Motswagae emphasizes that their focus on advancing the SDG pillar of Leaving No-one Behind also resonates with the government of Botswana's RESET Agenda that aligns with the government's Vision 2036 pillar. The pillar of Vision 2036 speaks to human social development, an important area of focus for Ticano Group.

According to the vision 2036 pillar, Botswana will be a moral, tolerant and inclusive society that provides opportunities for all. For easy execution, the pillar focuses on different sectors which includes culture, health and wellness, social, inclusion and equality, and gender equality just to mention a few.

The executive director also indicated that the company strives to ensure sustainability on the funded projects.

ADVOCATING FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

When speaking on socio-economic empowerment that the Ticano initiative advocates for, Motswagae explained that the financial support programme entails that people with disabilities get reduced borrowing rates to finance their business purchase orders. Often, people with disabilities find it hard to get financial support.

Ticano's goal is to support people with disabilities with transport logistics both at local and international levels to ensure that they meet the targets to deliver on their tender supplies. The company intends to empower them so that they can participate actively in the economic value chain. The initiative will be rolled out across the country, reaching rural areas. This aims to ensure that the programme reaches every disabled person in business in Botswana. "It is our commitment to see all the socio-economic gaps that exist in our economy dealt with. We also have the health finance support programme which aims to boost local players in the health industry to have access to finance so that their business can also be sustainable. We are going to work with the SMMEs on health so that they become competitive and ready to benefit from the P10 billion budget tenders that will be lined up from the Ministry of Health and Wellness this year," he added.

Ticano director alluded the company will extend its financial support programmes to other sectors such as education, food, and the petroleum industry to enhance diversity in the future. The financial programmes will be targeted to make an impact on economic development by creating jobs as well as empowering other upcoming businesses with the support and skills they need.

Motswagae averred that mentorship is very important, therefore Ticano will follow up closely on the businesses that have been assisted, emphasizing that they will drive financial literacy too. He said most of the time, a lack of mentorship after extending funding results in little to no sustainability.

The vision is to offer funding and then measure the success of funding to determine the sustainability and the impact made by the support. The program also mentors people with disabilities on financial prudence and we will work with the community to support people like social workers in offering mentorship and financial education to people with disabilities. MENTORSHIP IN FINANCIAL LITERACY As part of supporting the disabled community in business, Ticano will be guiding on all aspects of entrepreneurship development such as brand positioning, marketing, and how to budget.

Motswagae said the conversation by relevant authorities around matters affecting the people with disabilities should no longer be talking about support policies with no lack of implementation, hence Ticano's commitment to implement.