Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) has identified foreign investors with whom it will partner to boost dairy production in the country.
Gomolemo Zimona, Public Relations officer in the government investment arm, told The Telegraph that the investors were nominated after careful scrutiny.
Some of the qualities considered were whether the partners possessed technical expertise to run large scale productions, which will produce milk and by products on a large scale basis.
BDC denied that it had intentionally targeted foreign investors, saying they were only looking for suitable partners who have the necessary skills for large scale dairy production.
“We did not discriminate against locals. It is only that┬áthey did not fit the criteria we were looking for”, he said.
However, BDC declined to name the foreign investors, as they have not yet signed contracts with them. However, Zimona expressed hope that the contracts will be signed soon.
At the moment, BDC is looking for suitable land on which to place the projects. Zimona said they are specifically looking for land in disease free areas.
BDC is currently working on boosting milk production. They also intend to diversify into other projects such as horticulture, fish farming and hatchering.
Botswana is estimated to import 90 percent of her dairy products. It is hoped that when the project comes to fruition it will facilitate skills transfer, value addition to locally produced products and employment creation. These are some of the factors that BDC considered when measuring the viability of a project.
Botswana government was in the past blamed for failing to attract white farmers who fled Zimbabwe after war veterans repossessed their farms. The farmers, who were highly knowledgeable, have since settled in countries such as Zambia and Nigeria, where they are reported to have boosted agricultural production.
