Government has given venture capitalists reason to smile with revelations that Public Private Partnerships can play a big role in the development of the resource rich economies of the SADC region.
Speaking at the 10 years anniversary celebrations of the Development Finance Resource Center (DFRS), Vice President Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe said the regional resource base is enormous and it requires technical expertise through the deployment of partnerships with monied guys.
“Botswana and other African countries are endowed with resources and we have to make a serious attempt to take advantage of what is there,” stated the VP.
“Although Botswana has abundant coal resources of approximately 200 billion tons, for us to realise the full benefits of these resources we need someone with expertise to help us put the resource to good use,” he added.
The SADC headquarters in Gaborone and the Ombudsman building are two examples of successful PPPs. Kedikilwe spelt out the areas where Botswana is in serious need of PPPs in order to diversify the economy from diamonds ultimately eradication poverty. One example is the need for government to bring in Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to help cash strapped economies of the region and spread risk.
“We are struggling with our 600 Mega Watt power project; we have plans to establish a 300 mega watt Greenfield, and for all this to be successful we need all the expertise,” said Kedikilwe.
“Again to realise the benefits from these resources we need national grid transmission line to those parts of the country. We can’t do that on our own we need the expertise through the PPP’s”.
He added that Botswana is also in desperate need of PPP’s type of arrangement in order to bring water to the southern part of the country, where water shortages are becoming severe.
In addition Kedikilwe said since Botswana has potentials of copper, nickel mine and silver mines, it is considering a sulphiric acid plant. Government recently flouted two tenders inviting IPPs to help in power generation.
