Two important events are taking place at CEDA, a government agency responsible for financing viable Batswana business ideas and projects.
Firstly, Dr Thapelo Matsheka, who has been spearheading major changes at the organisation and new strategies, is leaving at the end of this month. Secondly, he leaves when a new corporate identity for the agency has just been unveiled.
The role of this organisation cannot be over-emphasised, looking at the impact it has made in the socio-economic sphere of Botswana since 2001.
Since its inception, CEDA has funded start-up businesses and expansions to the value of P2 billion in various sectors of the economy, thus creating an estimated 28 000 jobs for Batswana.
This is commendable, especially in the current environment that it operates under—where there is no clear cut law that stands tall to support small businesses.
Despite odds, Matsheka and his team are credited with having turned around the organisation in the years he spent there, although in Botswana not everyone can ever be happy.
It is through his vision that businesses that would have not had seen the light, received funding and now are a beacon of hope and example to others.
He took over when there were issues surrounding how loans were disbursed and Intellectual Property rights, where promoters were stealing others’ ideas.
During his tenure, CEDA devised a strategy of disbursing funds by paying suppliers directly to stop the tendency of tricky promoters who used the money for other things.
Equally, when he arrived, the tendency to steal other people’s ideas was reduced.
That noise has subsided although we do not know whether people still have inside information that they sell to their friends.
Also, CEDA has become a one service stop with all its activities centralised from Structured Finance, Young Farmers, Property, and Credit Guarantee Scheme, which has been in-sourced.
Over the years, it has also attracted skills that would only be found in the private sector.
As a newspaper, we can only hope that the role and mandate of this agency will live well beyond Matsheka’s departure.
The hope is that the people he recruited will remain as torch bearers even after he has left to join the private sector.
The new logo and pay-off line should not make the employees at the agency complacent after the good job they have done.
It is hoped that anyone who the Minister of Trade and Industry appoints to replace Matsheka will be a right choice for the job, setting aside politics, and in the interest of the economy.
Worldwide, small businesses are the anchor of economies, including larger ones like Germany.
Matsheka is also leaving at a time when there are discussions in government on legislations that can protect and promote SMMEs.
Currently, there are many factors affecting business in the country, including market access, access to technology, weak entrepreneurial skills that represent major constraints for development of citizen businesses.
As Matsheka leaves, CEDA was working towards addressing these constraints.
He was in discussions with key stakeholders, whose support is critical to the success of the development of citizen businesses and to the achievement of the CEDA mandate, including the central government ministries and local authorities, parastatal organisations and other public entities through their procurement budgets.
Currently, there is no Citizen Empowerment Law except where discretion is used, like a policy that limits the amount of imported vegetables when there is more produced locally.
Cabinet has instructed the Central Government, local authorities and parastatals to procure goods and services from local companies, provided pricing is competitive, in order to grow our manufacturing base and support local businesses.
The new CEDA should strive to protect the mandate and help Small Medium and Micro Enterprises whose agency was meant for them.
The new CEO should continue where Matsheka left by continuing negotiating for a fair deal on procuring authorities to support the funded projects.
We are still supportive of David Magang, former CEDA chairman, who wants a similar empowerment like the one in South Africa.
Magang has observed that most of the South African owned companies have empowerment programmes in that country that are designed to assist small businesses to participate in their procurement; such programmes could be extended to locally based citizen companies relying on the experience from South Africa.
