Grant Thornton and Business Botswana have removed the P20 million threshold criteria which has been a hindrance to the youth from participating in the annual Private Business Growth Award.
According to Grant Thornton and Business Botswana, they took this decision following concerns that some youth companies have not been participating in the annual award due to the huge amounts of money used as a criterion for submission to qualify for the business competition.
According to Business Botswana, the business award recognizes privately-held businesses in Botswana that approach growth from both a strategic and a holistic perspective and create a positive impact well beyond their bottom line.
Grant Thornton spokesperson Aswin Vaidyanathan said the company took a decision to remove the 20 million Pula threshold to enable all companies particularly youth companies to be exposed to competitive international market exposition.
Vaidyanathan said the response received from the most frequently asked questions and comments made by their clients was about the 20 million Pula threshold which was among the criteria used to determine if a company was eligible to participate in the awards.
‘’We have since removed the 20 million pula criteria and only amongst others look into the company with audited financial statement and with a good track record of contributing to the economy of the country,” said Vaidyanathan.
He said the Private Business Growth Award is looking for local businesses owners who can demonstrate a holistic growth and encompass a broad range of activities across their business: innovation, market development, people and culture, strategic leadership, and improvement in ´¼ünancial measures.
He added that two winners will be awarded from categories ranging from small to medium enterprises and on large enterprises respectively.
He said amongst the criteria to be followed, eligible candidates must be a privately owned citizen owned business or a privately owned non-citizen business with more than five years operating in Botswana with audited ´¼ünancial statements. The businesses should employ in excess of 25 people if citizen owned or employ in excess of 100 citizens if they are non-citizen owned. Last year the inaugural 2015 Private Business Growth Award was awarded to Sprint Couriers company.
