Africa-Press – Botswana. The Ministry of Entrepreneurship will launch the Chema Chema Fund guidelines this month, says Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA), Chief Executive Officer, Mr Thabo Thamane.
Therefore he advised Batswana to remain vigilant of fake messages regarding the fund. Briefing the media recently, Mr Thamane said the ministry had appointed both Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) and CEDA as the custodians of the fund.
Mr Thamane dismissed recent information circulating on social media about the launch of the fund being on April 6, at CEDA.
He said currently they were busy with preparations leading to the unveiling of this fund to Batswana, citing that the ministry will communicate when the programme will be launched.
Mr Thamane urged the nation to look out for proper and truthful reporting on the fund from government media, ministry, CEDA or LEA to avoid being scammed.
To this juncture, Mr Thamane said there was no information regarding eligibility criteria and steps to access the fund as everything will be detailed upon the launch of the programme.
Notably, he said the fund targeted businesses in the informal sector which were not subjected to paying tax or registered as companies within the country’s economy.
Mr Thamane cautioned that this sector has been having challenges with access to funding and any other intervention meant to develop and sustain their entities. He said upon thorough assessments government took initiative to set up the fund with anticipation that in the medium term the programme would graduate beneficiaries from being informal to becoming formal and ultimately help reduce unemployment.
Upon launching the fund, Mr Thamane said there shall be a formal comprehensive education on the programme which would spread nationwide at various places including dikgotla and councils.
Mr Thamane said the time was now for Batswana to benefit from the P500 million Chema Chema Fund, therefore, urged all belonging to the informal sector to take time to decisively work on their business ideas and perfect them to stand a chance to be funded through the programme.
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