One of the most common phrases in Botswana today is ‘foreign direct investment’.
It’s so popular within government parlance that those in power believe the answer to turning the country’s economy around lies in foreign direct investment.
It appears, without it, this country will perish the next day.
Unfortunately, this pre-occupation has taken so much of our attention that we have decided to ignore other areas critical to bolster our economy to sustainable levels.
There is nothing wrong with calling people from abroad to come and invest in Botswana.
If only we had in place a friendly environment on which to receive those people.
We must never forget that Botswana is not the only country falling over itself to attract foreign investors to its shores.
Every other country is involved in that business, including the most developed.
While wooing foreign investors by our government is a noble idea, there is no corresponding commitment on the ground to remove the many impediments that practically make it impossible for those foreigners to come to Botswana.
Our laws and regulations are simply too unfriendly to foreign investments.
We are not able to keep pace with the many pronouncements we make regarding what foreign investors can expect once they come to Botswana.
Our regulatory framework is not only outdated but also excessive, intrusive, tedious and outright unfriendly.
Registering business in Botswana takes about ten times longer than is the case in Namibia, and we compare worse with Mauritius, which bizarrely we never tire of mentioning as our benchmark even as on the ground there is no comparison between Botswana and Mauritius.
The bureaucratic barriers not only inhibit making business but also make us uncompetitive by global standards. No wonder we have been sliding down the rankings of global competitiveness.
Registering a company in Botswana is not the only problem.
Processing of tax clearance documentation is an even bigger nightmare.
Still that is not the worst thing required that business people in Botswana have to contend with.
The processing of residents and business permits should take that honour, if it is.
In some instances, one has to wait for over six months before they are even told that their application has not been successful.
That is madness, to put it mildly, given that investors have no interest in doing government paperwork, but running their businesses and making money.
We believe that if Botswana’s economy is to grow then the bureaucracy, legislative and regulatory red tape have to be streamlined in a really big way.
Otherwise we better stop wailing about calling in foreign investors.
Starting with the informal sector and small business, Botswana is just not a conducive place to conduct business.
Foreigners aside, even citizens are not having it any easier.
Just registering a company or securing a hawker’s license from the authorities is a life long struggle.
It is not surprising that many of the hawkers in the informal sector go on with their trade without permission from the authorities.
This excessive red tape and regulatory burden have become a breeding ground for corruption as people resort to greasing the authorities as a way of beating the hurdles.
If Botswana could take a cue from economies like Singapore and Taiwan, we could come to appreciate that rapid economic growth, which bears dividend by improving the people’s standards of living, comes about only if there is accountability.
In Botswana, we remain oblivious of targets and deadlines.
Nobody is ever taken to task for failing to deliver on a set mandate or deadline.
As Botswana, we must ask ourselves why a country such as Rwanda, which just over ten years ago went through a massacre that shocked the world, is now way ahead of us when it comes to attracting foreign investments.
In looking for an answer to it we are not able to find anything other than that there is accountability in Rwanda.
People are given responsibilities which they have to fulfil.
Such responsibilities are accompanied by targets and deadlines.
If they fail to deliver, action is taken against them.
It is called accountability.
In Botswana, to our detriment, we have no such word.
And it shows by our failure to achieve anything.
In this regard, we urge government to seriously consider addressing the many impediments on Botswana’s business environment; red tape, excessive and, in some instances, contradictory regulatory requirements, unfriendly red tapes not to mention the poor and unreliable communication infrastructure, especially the internet.
