Africa-Press – Botswana. Manufacturers had been urged to explore potential financial options and sources for the success of their businesses.
This was said by several panelists at the ongoing Local Manufacturing Summit when discussing innovating and sustainable financing support for local manufacturers and exporters.
Financiers and credit insurers offered banking solutions and drew lessons from past experiences.
Head of ABSA enterprise and supply chain development Ms Kushatha Chilisa said ABSA institution had embarked on a journey to support locals.
She said they had created programmes to extend funding to SMMEs even those with additional need for security. She said in terms of establishing partnerships the bank had done extremely well which was key in capacity building.
She said ABSA had also created access to markets for manufacturers and were open for discussions to open the export space.
CEDA chief executive officer Mr Thabo Thamane said the organisation had spent P7 billion on various sub-sectors since it’s inception. He said over a 19-year period P500 million went to manufacturing.
He said after a revision of guidelines P400 million had been approved just over two and a half years. Mr Thamane said CEDA had eased access impediments that prevented manufacturing significant progress.
He said CEDA faced some challenges but had to remain sustainable as an entity.
He said he was worried that most of their applicants did not invest time in knowing what they wanted to engage in saying substandard plans were a serious concern.
Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) head of risk Mr Botshelo Mokotedi said BDC had offered diverse environment for marketing. He said their mandate was to industrialise Botswana and diversify from primary commodity which was diamond.
He said they were coming up with various products that could accommodate the manufacturing space. He added that BDC had done a lot through partnerships in terms of equity capital.
He said BDC advocated for large scale opportunities thus created a linkage between local producers and consumers.
Mr Botshelo said manufacturers must be efficient and produce more at less cost.
Botswana Export Credit Insurance (BECI) sales and marketing manager Rocky Ramalefho said they facilitated access to credit for manufacturers. He said established businesses needed assurance in terms of mitigating risks.
He appealed to financiers to afford manufacturers access to credit. He said BECI was set up among other things to close gaps in access to credit.
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